Hermione knocked on Ron's door tentatively and opened it.

"Hedwig!" She beamed. They'd been sending Harry wretchedly horrible letters which told him nothing at all. Hermione felt like the worst friend in the world.

"Don't!" Ron warned, clutching at his hand as Hermione went to pet Hedwig softly. She bit Hermione's finger.

"Ouch!" Hermione pulled her hand back. Hedwig ruffled her feathers and pecked again.

"Birds a bloody menace!" Ron hissed, sucking at his own finger. At this, Pigwidgeon started buzzing around excitedly in his cage, thinking he was the topic of their conversation.

"Hedwig, stop for a moment so I can grab your letters... please?" Hermione held up her hands as if in surrender. Hedwig paused and blinked, then hooted once, which Hermione took as permission. There were three letters tied to her leg. She threw one to Ron, dropped hers on the empty bed in his room and grabbed Sirius'.

"Fred!" Hermione hissed up the hall. She jumped as the twins appeared on either side of her, dropping the letter. She bent to pick it up, "You two are insufferable!"

"Isn't this Harry's owl?" George asked, "Ow! Bloody thing bit me!"

"She's been doing that," Ron said sullenly.

"What'd you need, there's a lot of stuff going on downstairs," Fred asked. Hermione handed him the letter.

"Give it to Sirius, tell him it's from Harry," Hermione ordered.

"You're bleeding," Fred said, frowning.

"Um, Hermione, I think I figured out what's going on downstairs," Ron said, sounding very afraid.

"How would you know that?" The twins demanded skeptically. Hermione grabbed her letter from the bed and tore it open.

"I've just been attacked by dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts!" Hermione read, horrified, "I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here."

"Oh, he's pissed," Fred chuckled.

"No, no, no they can't do that!" Hermione exclaimed, dropping the letter and dashing from the room.

"AH!" George pulled away from Harry's snowy owl. Fred and George shared a glance, "Think Harry told it-"

"-To bite until it gets answers," Fred sighed, "I do."

"You can do that?" Ron asked.

"We did it with Bagman," the twins answered. Hedwig fluttered over to Ron, who fell out of his chair to get away.

"What're you doing on the floor, Ron?" Hermione flew back into the room, a thick book in her hands, "See! They can't do this; he's allowed to perform magic if-"

"Hermione, I really don't think the Ministry cares about laws right now," Fred said sincerely, snatching the book from her hands and snapping it shut. Hedwig flapped over to Hermione then, and Fred swung the rather thick book at the bird.

"Fred!" Hermione hit the book out of his hands before he could the snowy owl, and Hedwig screeched angrily, diving at Fred maliciously. She screeched again and sat beside Pigwidgeon's cage when the book hit the floor with a very loud bam. "She's not a Bludger!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Fred backed away from the owl, bumping into Hermione. She held up her hands and stopped him knocking them both over.

"What is going on?" Ginny demanded, barging into the room. "Is that Hedwig?"

"Yeah," Ron said, "Will you find Mum, she bit me."

"What? Why did she bite you?" Ginny asked, glaring at her older brothers.

"You know I have no idea," Ron said, "I'm gonna find Mum. Get out of my room."

"You heard the man," Fred looped his arm through Hermione's left.

"Let's go," George mirrored him on her right, half leading, half dragging her out of Ron's room.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked warily. She twisted around to see Ginny, who was smiling faintly.

"How's that Muggle song go?" Fred asked.

"Something about the Wizard of Oz, wasn't it?" George looked to Hermione.

"Nope," Hermione shook her head, "I am not singing with you... Wait, that's American! How did you even hear that?"

"Quidditch World Cup last year," Fred answered, "Some witch was singing it to her kid."

"What's so special about yellow brick roads anyhow?" George asked.

"It's an abnormal color for a road, meant to display-" Hermione cut herself short. She sounded like her father.

"I told you," Fred grinned proudly, leading the way down the narrow stairs. George briefly released Hermione, though Fred did not.

"Told him what?" Hermione demanded, trying to pull away from Fred.

"You do know everything!" George laughed raucously. The sounds of shouting echoed up from the kitchen.

"Extendables," Fred said softly, grinding to a halt. George Disapparated with a crack. Fred snuck closer down to the kitchen.

"Fred, you're going to get us into trouble!" Hermione hissed.

"Come on," Fred grinned, "Live a little."

George reappeared before Hermione could retort, handing out three fleshy strings. Fred put one to his ear and held it out, pointed toward the door. George did the same, as did a reluctant Hermione.

"-must have been the Ministry!" Sirius said.

"You just want to believe that because you feel slighted," A familiarly dreadful voice said slowly, "One mishap puts you in prison-"

"Mishap, Snivellous?!" Sirius roared, "12 Muggles died!"

"Snivellous?" Fred positively beamed, "I knew I liked him."

"Snape will kill you if you call him that," George muttered.

"Professor Snape."

"The point remains that the Ministry does not benefit from attacking young Mr. Potter," Professor Snape continued, sounding a little bored.

"Surely it benefits if he's expelled from school!" Sirius said, an odd note in his voice.

"He's not expelled yet," Mr. Weasley reminded them, "Dumbledore-"

"With the Prophet attacking Dumbledore, I doubt that Dumbledore will be able to do much," Lupin said with a heavy sigh.

"Don't say things like that!" Mrs. Weasley said.

"We'll just have to see how things play out, I guess," Moody said gruffly. Then he sighed as if he was tired.

"Oh, no!" George said letting the string fall down. Fred grabbed Hermione's hand, though lingered for a moment.

"Molly, your boys-"

George Disapparated, and Fred pulled Hermione up the stairs at a rather loud, unstealthy run.

"FRED! GEORGE!"

Every other minute, it seemed, Moody was sighing and saying, 'Molly, your boys.' It'd happened at breakfast that morning, lunch the day before, more times than Fred wanted to admit. He wasn't used to getting caught so effortlessly. He thought that when Crouch was Moody last year that he must have let George and him get away with a hell of a lot of stuff.

Fred pulled Hermione into a random room, breathing heavily, and quietly shut the door behind him. Heavy footsteps thudded past, then stopped. Fred pushed Hermione against the wall behind the door, holding his breath. Hermione could barely breath herself, Fred's entire body was pressed against her. The door opened, nearly hitting Fred, remained that way for a short moment before closing again.

"Boys!" Mrs. Weasley hissed, running up the hall once more.

"Hi there," Fred whispered, staring down intently at Hermione.

"I need to go-" Hermione started anxiously. If the Ministry really had sent dementors after Harry, then she needed to check the legality of their actions. Someone had to call their bluff.

"You've got days," Fred said softly, leaning against the wall with one strong arm.

"Harry's already been expelled-"

"Dad said not yet," Fred grinned, "Which means you don't have to worry yet either."

"How is everything so easy for you?" Hermione asked, exasperated.

"Coming from you," Fred leaned down to brush his lips against hers softly.

The door slammed open, hitting Fred. He jumped back, expecting his Mum. Instead, Sirius closed the door behind Lupin as the older men entered the room. Lupin's arms were crossed, but Sirius looked a little proud to Hermione.

"I told you," he said smugly, "You owe me 2 knuts, Moony."

Hermione stifled her smile as Fred's mouth dropped open. Sirius narrowed his eyes and Hermione explained, "Fred took your Map from Filch's office his first year."

"Your Map?" Fred turned to stare at her, "You knew?!"

"Harry-"

"He knew?!"

"His Dad was Prongs, of course he knew!" Sirius said, looking Fred over, "You figured it out?"

"Only after it taught us every curse word we know," Fred laughed drily, unbelieving.

"An educator indeed," Sirius prodded Lupin in the arm.

"So you're Padfoot..." Fred frowned then snapped, "The dog thing, of course!"

"How did we get so off topic?" Lupin said, giving Sirius a pointed look.

"Right!" He said, and his grin turned into a less profound slight tug at his lips, "Frederick Gideon Weasley -your mother's voice carries- we'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Especially since we assured Hermione's father when we picked her up that we wouldn't let her get into any trouble," Lupin arched an eyebrow.

"You did not!" Hermione crossed her arms.

"I wasn't joking when I said I'd bite him," Sirius said, mimicking Lupin. He bared his teeth to prove his point.

"Um... what?" Fred glanced from Lupin to Sirius, confused.

"Yes, you were!" Hermione said.

"I will write your father," Sirius said, trying desperately to live up to his name, even narrowing his eyes a little. Hermione stared back until he started laughing again. She grinned triumphantly.

"Sirius," Lupin sighed, "You dragged me up here, and I assume it was to do more than have a few staring contests."

"Right, fear of Merlin," Sirius shifted his gaze over to Fred and said in a low tone, "I may only be an accused murderer, but if you hurt her, I will become a real one. Understand?"

Fred swallowed and nodded.

"Now, where is Molly?" Sirius sighed, "We have to explain to her that it was not her daughter conspiring with you and your blasted twin."

"Moody put her off the scent, as it were," Lupin rolled his eyes, "Don't know why."

"Because she's on the path to Prefectness," Sirius grinned at his old friend, "Wouldn't want word of any deviation to get to Dumbledore's ears."

With that the two left, both throwing a deadly glare back at Fred before they disappeared up the hall. They left the door open, and though Fred tried to close it, it would not budge.

"I don't care what who says," Fred shook his head, still a little wide eyed, "Sirius is scary."

"Oh, he's about as mean as a retriever," Hermione scoffed, "I need to go apologize to Ginny."

"She'll be fine with it," Fred said, but Hermione stepped out into the hall.

Ginny was talking quietly with Tonks when Hermione found her.

"After today, I wouldn't be surprised if Molly charms the door every day," Tonks glanced over her shoulder, "Oh, hey Hermione."

"Mum thinks I was listening in at the meeting," Ginny said.

"Your brothers are nothing but trouble," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. Then she looked to Tonks, "D'you mean she'll put an Imperturbable Charm on it?"

"Yes, that's what it's called!" Tonks grinned. She turned back to Ginny, "Anyway, it's easy to spot. You just chuck a bit of rubbish at it and if it doesn't make contact you know it's been charmed."

"Nymphadora," a cool voice said, and Hermione stepped back beside Ginny as Snape passed. He positively glared at the two of them as he passed. Hermione couldn't remember the last time she'd felt such a surge of dislike for the greasy haired man. Maybe it was when her front teeth had reached her chin. Ginny glared coldly back, and Snape turned and strode away. Hermione thought she saw him rub his forehead as he left.

"I don't like him much, to be honest," Tonks said quietly. "But he is on our side, so there's not much we can do."

"Why does he look at us like that?" Ginny asked Hermione, "He looks like he hates us."

"I dunno," Hermione sighed, "Quidditch?"

"Could be," Tonks shrugged, "Slytherin and Gryffindor have had the weirdest competition since Professor McGonagall was injured playing."

"What?" Ginny hissed.

"Professor McGonagall played?" Hermione demanded.

"Yes, I heard she was really good too," Tonks grinned, "She was a Chaser."

"Oh, I wish I could play Chaser," Ginny said glumly.

"Why don't you try out?" Hermione asked.

Ginny blushed scarlet up to her ears, "I'm not that good. Besides, they've already got Alicia, Angelina and Katie."

"You've been playing since you were 6," Hermione rolled her eyes, "You're loads better than I ever could be."

"Playing what?" Ron asked, on his way down to the kitchen.

"Exploding Snap," Ginny said easily. Tonks covered her smile with her hand.

"I've got to go," Tonks waved, unleashing her grin, "See you in a bit!"

"Bye!" Ginny and Hermione waved back.

"Hungry?" Hermione asked, gesturing toward the kitchen.

"Starved," Ginny giggled a little and lead the way.

.o0O0o.

Haha two in two days!

Fandomqueen104: How can you have two OTPs from one series? I was very happy to make your day then!

Electrocorrosive: Fred is an opportunist if ever there was one. It's why he's such a good businessman.