Yay! Christmas Holidays!!! And you know what that means don't you? Yes, it means I can write as much as I want and not get my head bitten off for doing no work! So I'm planning to have this story finished by the end of the week- this is the penultimate chapter! Oooh, excitement! So I take this last opportunity to apologise for my sporadic entries and to beg your forgiveness. I also have some thankyous for my last entry so I shall get on with those coz I know you're dying to have this next chapter! (oh, and if I'm sounding a little obnoxious today, I'm sorry. But I'm in a very weird mood- I slept in til 11am today so I've got quite a lot of pent up energy!)

R xxx

Thankyou to all of: coolo, ilovetom88 (nice name ;) !), Spastic Bookworm, LauranotLora (no I'm not southern! Im british!), Stella Blu, TheItalianBanjoist, Ririana, Hiscefit, Doodleflip as always, memommy27, psquare and lady Emily. Your reviews mean so much to me!

In comparison to the last few weeks, the following days were very very normal. The weather had, yet again, decided it was going to practise for November so the whole of the Weasley family, Harry and Hermione were stuck in the house for the good part of a week.

There were of course, countless diversions to keep them all amused, now that Fred and George were back on the warpath that was their trickster ways.

Many games of exploding snap and wizard chess were played, but with their own little twists. The exploding snap pack was had been jinxed (three guesses who by) so that it only ever exploded if it was Ron's turn, something Ron failed to notice until his eyebrows were the colour of soot.

Similarly, the wizard chess set were a special prototype from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes which had a cheating set of black pieces which would 'acciedentally' knock down more pieces than they were meant to so, ultimately, black always won. And Ron, by pure 'coincidence', always ended up playing with the white pieces.

After several more incidences of kitchen utensils that seemed to have a magnetic attraction to Mr Weasley's head, it transpired that it was the remainder of a mild curse that the twins had placed on him about two months previously.

'Well, you can't say it wasn't a clever jinx,' moaned Fred defensively as his ear was twisted painfully by his mother.

'Yeah, come on mum, it –OW- was only a –OW- joke,' said George as his ear too, was caugt in an iron grip by Mrs Weasley.

'A joke?!' came Mrs Weasley's voice. 'Well excuse me if I forget to laugh,' and renewed moans of pain came from the twins. In the next room, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione winced, simultaneously.

'I thought it was funny,' muttered Ginny.

'I HEARD THAT!' shouted Mrs Weasley, and Ginny flinched. 'HONESTLY! POSSESSIVE KITCHEN UTENSILS?! I AM SIMPLY ASTOUNDED BY THE LENGTH AND BREDTH OF YOUR-'

'Charm?' asked Fred.

'Wit?' offered George.

'Looks?' they both said together. Mrs Weasley let a snort of frustration and the next thing they heard was another set of stifled cries.

'YOU COULD HAVE DONE YOUR FATHER A SERIOUS INJURY! TEHN WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE? I JUST-'

And so it continued. Ten minutes later, the twins trooped out of the kitchen with equally glum faces.

'Ow,' winced Fred as he gingerly touched his ear which was now flaming red. 'Throbbing like mad.'

'Tell me about it,' muttered George quietly as he rubbed his own. 'That woman is a menace.'

Hermione and Harry sniggered. Here were two men, both about six feet tall who were now dwarfed by their mother, of about five foot one.

'Oy,' said George indignantly. 'Just coz she's short doesn't mean she's not lethal. You see what se can do!' and he pointed to his ear angrily.

'And she's got really long fingernails,' muttered Fred. And he, Ron, Harry and Ginny headed upstairs, Fred still gesticulating angrily.

'So what did you actually do?' asked Hermione who was curled up on the sofa like a contented cat wit another contented cat, Crookshanks, at her feet.

'It was just a joke,' George said, his eyes doing 'that puppy dog thing' (Mrs Weasley liked to call it). Hermione smiled.

'I know it was just a joke, it only ever is with you lot. I was just wondering what this 'just a joke' actually was. I didn't manage to discern all the shouts you know.' George grinned at her.

'Were you listening to the whole thing?'

'More-or-less, yeah.'

'Okay. Well, basically, it's this pill thing. If you swallow it, all the food you eat becomes sort of jinxed.' Hermione raised an eyebrow.

'Sort of jinxed?'

'Yeah, well, anyway. It's basically that whatever utensil prepared the food suddenly becomes very protective of the food it prepared and, well, doesn't want you to eat it.'

'It doesn't want you to eat it?' Hermione said.

'What is this? National 'Let's-repeat-everything-George-says' day? Yes, the utensils don't want their food to be eaten.'

And this was just too much for Hermione. She collapsed into fits of hysterical laughter, tears running down her face.

'Their food?' she gasped. 'They don't want their food to be eaten? So they beat you up until you stop?' And she dissolved into laughter again. George didn't look too impressed at first, but soon her laughter became infectious and George soon saw the funny side.

'Okay, so maybe it was a it of a stupid thing to do,' he admitted, smiling.

'Oh no, I'm not saying it was stupid at all' said Hermione, gaining control of herself.

'You're not?'

'No. It was actually very clever. To manage a spell that works beyond the boundaries of the cursed object but to work on other objects too. Very clever…'

George rolled his eyes. That was the Hermione he remembered from 2 years ago.

'I'm only saying that it was perhaps the most… how do I say it without offending you? Original idea you ever had,' she smiled at him. 'Not offence meant of course,' she added.

'None taken,' he replied smoothly.

'But I'm guessing it was a prototype,' Hermione continued.

'How did you guess?' George replied innocently.

'Oh, just the small matter of the jinx lasting over six weeks.'

'How do you know that wasn't intentional?' he asked. Hermione raised an eyebrow. 'Oh, okay, so it went little wrong. But we've got it sorted now.'

'How do you know?' she asked sceptically. George suddenly looked a little uncomfortable.

'Well, we just… do. You know? Being so clever and all that-'

'Who've you tested on this time?' Hermione asked, seemingly knowing the answer already. George hung his head and tried not to grin.

'Oh, come on 'mione, you know he's an annoying git.'

'I thought it might be Ron.'

'But it'll all be fine though. We've changed it so it'll only last a day.'

'And how long was the one you used on your dad meant to last.'

'A day,' muttered George quietly. Hermione rolled her eyes again and slowly sat up, dislodging Crookshanks who trotted off, no doubt to go and chase some more garden gnomes.

'Don't let him get hurt,' said Hermione. It wasn't a question, it was a request. George looked into those velvetine brown eyes he'd been dreaming about for months. 'I'll try,' he said, 'but I can't promise anything.'

'That's good enough for me,' Hermione smiled. George smiled back. She was so beautiful, and she didn't even need to try. She wasn't wearing any makeup at all, but her smile made her face light up, her eyes sparkle. Before George knew it, he was moving closer to her… and she wasn't moving away. Their lips were almost touching and…

'LUCNH!' came Mrs Weasley's voice from the kitchen. Hermione and George jumped apart as the sound of thundering footsteps came from upstairs and the stairs as the rest of the family trooped into the living room.

'What's up with you two?' asked Ron as he skipped the trick step and landed, not all too gracefully, at the bottom of the stairs.

'Nothing,' they said together, a little too quickly. They looked at each other, blushed slightly and walked to the dining room for lunch. Fred followed after them, still grumbling about his ear which was still very pink, although whether this was from anger or from his mother's onslaught, you couldn't tell.

As they all took their places and as George and Hermione looked at each other the same word crossed their minds.

Damn.

As can be imagined, the rest of tat day was really quite awkward. On was, as always, quite oblivious to what he had walked in on. For the rest of the sodden day, Hermione stayed in Ginny's room where they chatted about nothing in particular. Ginny could sense something was up but didn't say anything. She knew how embarrassing questions like that could be.

'Only five days to go,' said Ginny absentmindedly, whilst darning one of her socks.

'Only five?' asked Hermione, counting the days off on her fingers. 'God, you're right. Time flies-'

'When you're having fun?' filled in Ginny. 'You can't exactly say that the whole holidays have been a bundle of laughs.'

'Yeah, but besides the attack-'

'Yeah, besides that,' Ginny laughed humourlessly.

'Our Hogwarts letters haven't arrived yet' asked Hermione, realising how little time they had to get all their new books and equipment.

'I'm sure they'll arrive soon,' said Ginny throwing down her darning needle. 'O, I can't be bothered to do this now. Want something to eat?'

Their letters, by pure coincidence, literally just arrived downstairs when they went to grab something to eat. While Ginny made a plate of sandwiches, Hermione took the letters to Harry and Ron's room to open them. They read the usual note about how term started on the first of September and the list of new books they would be required to buy.

But Hermione didn't' get that far. She was standing, rooted to the spot, holding a square, silver badge with the letters

HEAD

GIRL

printed neatly on it.

'Oh wow! Well done Hermione!' said Harry, looking over her shoulder. He hugged her hard, which partly revived Hermione from her stupor.

'I didn't... I thought… I don't…' but full sentences seemed beyond Hermione's capacity at this point in time. 'Did you…?' She didn't need to finish the sentence.

'No,' came Ron's sullen voice. 'We didn't.'

'Well, actually,' came Harry's voice very quietly, 'I got Quidditch captain.'

'Oh, great. Poor ickle Ronnie, the only one without any responsibility,' and Ron stormed out of the room without another word.

'Don't listen to him Harry,' Hermione said quietly, seeing the stricken look on Harry's face. 'Don't, really.' And she hugged him again, whispering 'Well done though.'

'Thanks,' he whispered. 'Think I'll go tell Ginny.'

'Yeah, do. She'll be really pleased.'

As Harry made for the door, he turned and said, 'Do you want to borrow Hedwig to tell your parents?' Hermione's face looked a little pained but she hitched a smile back on her face as she said

'That would be great.'

A slightly doleful party took place later. What with the awkwardness between Hermione and George, Mrs Weasley feeling a little put out that her son was the only one without a badge (happy though she was for the others- and with Harry being as good a son to her as anything). Ron was sullen for the whole evening, though he did try (in vain) to try and look happy for his best friends.

Both Harry and Hermione felt slightly dispirited, happy though they should have been. After a delicious supper, they all sat in front of the fire (that's how cold the weather was being), and chatted away. Ron took himself off to bed early complaining of a stomach ache. Nobody was fooled.

She couldn't sleep. She tried and tried but it just wouldn't come. Today had been a very confusing day. She kept on seeing his face, remembered the way she had purposely avoided his eyes. It had been weeks since that had last happened. And they'd been getting on so well…

Finally, Hermione rolled out of bed, making a decision to write a letter to her parents. She pulled out her wand, muttered 'Lumos', pulled out some parchment and her favourite black and gold quill and began to write. It was difficult for her, knowing this may well be the last note she ever sent to her parents before they split. Occasional tears dashed the ink, but she didn't much care.

Once she finished the letter, she sealed it up and went to go and find Hedwig. She thought she'd seen her downstairs earlier so she put on her slippers and slipped out into the dark house.

However, in the dark, it's a little difficult to see a trick step, much less avoid it…

'BANG, THUNK, BANG, THUNK'.

'Ow,' moaned Hermione trying to get up from her wholly undignified heap on the floor. Then a figure came running in from the kitchen.

'Holy crap Hermione,' and she felt strong arms wrap around her and lift her easily off the floor. She gave a small cry of pain as her arm was moved but she couldn't muster much else. 'Ever get that feeling of déjà vu?' came the voice again as she was gently laid down on the sofa.

'George?' she whispered.

'The very same,' he said, but sounding slightly worried. 'What on earth were you trying to do? Have you got some sort of death wish?'

'I was trying to find Hedwig actually,' she winced. There was a slight rustling and then George's face was illuminated by silver-white flames that he was holding in his hands. 'What about you?'

'I was getting a glass of water actually, seeing as the ghoul in he attic has seen fit to break the tap in out bedroom.' Carefully, he took the glass he hadn't filled and tipped the flames into it leaving his hands free. 'Okay, what have you roken this time?'

'Wrist, I think,' she whispered, flinching slightly as he caressed it gently.

'No problem,' said George and, whipping out his wand, fixed it almost instantly.

'Thanks,' murmured Hermione, relaxing into the sofa from the release of the pain.'

'No problem,' replied George, suddenly struck by how vulnerable she looked, how fragile. 'Are you okay?'

'Yes, why?'

'Nothing, it just looks like, like you've been… crying.'

'Oh, no, I'm fine really.'

'Promise?'

'Promise.'

'Good. Well, I never got to congratulate you anyway.'

'Oh,' Hermione blushed slightly. 'Thanks.'

'Yeah, well, normally I'd be disgusted and deny I ever had any contact with you at all… ever. But Head Girl seems to fit you somehow.'

'Oh?'

'Well, for a start, you have the same initials,' he grinned. Hermione looked pensively at him for a minute and then she realised what he meant.

'We do as well. How weird is that?'

'Well, not really, considering how obvious it was that you could have been head girl from your first day at Hogwarts.'

'I could?'

George now put on a high pitched voice and said 'Excuse me, but has anyone seen a toad. A boy named Neville has lost one… oh you haven't, well never mind. By the way, I've been informed by the driver hat we'll be arriving within ten minutes so I'd advise you to get changed soon.' He grinned evilly at her as she looked horror struck.

'I did not say that?'

'Oh yes you did. It was quite frightening at the time actually. You were probably the only student younger than me who I was genuinely terrified of.' Hermione snorted. 'It's true. You knew more spells than me and everything. Really scary.' He looked down on that girl; that bushy haired, slightly buck-toothed precocious eleven year old that had blossomed into this- A beautiful, albeit slightly accident-prone, young woman.

Hermione looked at George and knew this would be her only chance.

'Kiss me,' she whispered.

'What?' he whispered back, not daring to hope he had heard right.

'I, well… it's okay if… I mean if you-' But she was cut off mid-sentence by the action that was to make her entire summer the best she would have for a long time.

Teehee! R&R lol r xxx