A/N: I really sorry about the punctuation; no matter how many times I go over it, it seems in the uploading process it gets slightly messed up. I would like to thank Ruinsul for her advice, even though it refuses to work for me. Anyway, thank you to the rest of you who have reviewed! It makes me smile and inspires me to bring up points in the coming chapters that I have taken for granted. Like Lady Emily's question about why Fred is going through with the plan when he feels guilty. Your question will be answered in this chapter. I also must mention (to tink-Chan, mainly) that I'm going slow in the romance department because I think it would be more realistic if everything happened over time instead of all at once. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be 30 or more chapters, but it will take me awhile to write. In any case, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

Chapter Four: Diagon Alley

"Children! Come one now, time to go!" Mrs. Weasley called up the stairs to her kids, Hermione, and Harry. Fred and George apparated behind their mother and when she turned around, they grinned as Mrs. Weasley grabbed her heart in fright and sucked in a sharp breath. "Don't scare me like that!" she chastised them.

"Sorry, Mum," said George with a cheeky grin. He turned around and walked towards the table. There he grabbed two biscuts and threw one to Fred as he walked closer. Mrs. Weasley went bustling out of sight, gathering things for the trip.

"So," Fred said quietly. He looked down at his biscut. "We still going along with the plan?"

"Of course. It was your idea," George replied, his mouth full of bread.

"If you eat like that, George, we won't be able to deny the fact that Ron is our brother!" laughed Fred.

"What about me?" Ron said, running down the stairs, followed closely by Harry, Hermione, and Ginny. Ron and Harry each went to the table and grabbed biscuts while Hermione and Ginny looked on in disgust as they watched the boys shove them in their mouths.

"Honestly, does it take that much more effort to close your mouths?" Hermione said as she rolled her eyes. Fred looked at George, and swallowing the last bit of food in his mouth, he swiftly sidled up to Hermione and grinned. He threw his armaround her waist, pulled her closeand looked down at her. Hermione stared up at Fred in shock.

"Anything for you, love." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. Hermione blushed scarlet as Ginny's eyes widened. Ron's mouth hung open as bits of soggy food fell from it. Harry just stood there with an amused look on his face. "I will remember that for the next meal I eat."

Hermione gained her composure and said calmly, "Frederick Weasley, take your hands off me right now before I curse you into oblivion."

"I would, Hermione," said George with a gleeful look, pretending to be Fred. "But I don't have my hands on you." He waggled his hands in front of him to prove it.

"FREDERICK WEASLEY!" Mrs. Weasley had just came bustling in when she saw her son with his arm around Hermione. The grins that Harry, Ginny, and the real George had wore fell from their faces. Ron continued to look on with a stunned look on his face. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HERMIONE!" Fred dropped his arm from around Hermione's waist and turned around to look at his mother.

"I'm not Fred. I'm George," Fred said as he forced himself to grin at his mother. Big mistake. Mrs. Weasley's nostrils flared and her eyes turned to barely visible slits. Fred could have sworn that there was steam coming out of her ears.

"I don't know what you are up to, George," Mrs. Weasley bit out in a fake calm voice. "But I will not have you put Hermione in the middle of it."

Fred's grin faded as he looked seriously at his mother. "I can't help it, mum, if I fancy Hermione." Fred did something he never did before. He turned away from his mother. Mrs. Weasley was surprised at this, but said nothing more about it. She turned to look at the rest of her wide-eyed children.

"Why aren't you ready? Come on! Get a move on!" Mrs. Weasley said as she rounded up the kids. "We're using Floo powder to get to Diagon Alley."

"Where's dad?" Ginny asked, her voice had an awed quality to it. No one had ever stood up to her mother before. She gazed wonderingly at George. She was unaware that she was actually looking at Fred.

"He had to go into work. It was an emergency. Apparently someone hexed a warehouse full of toilet seats that were due for shipment this morning. The lot of them have been chasing the workers out when they tried to pack them up and managed to escape the warehouse. They're now wreaking havoc upon Muggle London. Harry, why don't you go first?" Mrs. Weasley held out the Floo powder to Harry. "And remember to annunciate! DIE-A-GON AL-LEE." Harry blushed as he remembered saying "Diagonally" the last time he travelled by Floo powder to Diagon Alley.

Once everyone had reached Diagon Alley, Mrs. Weasley let everyone split up. She went to Flourish and Blotts to buy everyone their new books. (Well, new for Harry and Hermione, but second-hand for her own children.) Fred and George went off alone to Gambol Japes, while Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione went to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor to have ice cream outdoors as they watched wizards and witches stroll by.

"So, what's going on with you and my brother?" Ginny asked slyly as she stuck her spoon full of vanilla ice cream topped with caramel in her mouth.

"Nothing!" Hermione said in a high pitched voice.

"Right..." muttered Ron as he stared into his chocolate ice cream. He started to stab it with his spoon and rested his head mournfully on his other hand.

"I'm serious!" Hermione wailed. "I don't know what's up with George!" Hermione got quiet and got a thoughtful expression on her face. She looked at Ginny. "Do you think he was telling the truth about fancying me?" she said in a serious, but excited voice. No boy had ever fancied her before, as far as she knew.

"He sounded pretty serious. And then he turned his back on Mum. No one has ever done that before. Did you see the look on her face? She looked like she'd been slapped in her face! Leave it to George to do something like that," Ginny said in a very impressed voice.

"Harry, what do you think?" Hermione said as she turned to her friend. "You haven't said anything about this."

"Well..." Harry glanced at Ron, who was still stabbing his ice cream, and came to a decision. "I think he might fancy you." Harry went back to his ice cream.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Hermione muttered sarcastically. She glared down at her ice cream. She began stabbing it, too, but for completely different reasons than Ron.

Meanwhile, Fred and George were in the joke shop, Gambol Japes. They were looking at No-Heat Fireworks when Fred burst out, "That was horrible!"

Without looking at his brother, George asked, "What was horrible?" He picked up an exceptionally large fireworks box and read the back.

"What we did to Hermione."

"What you did to Hermione, you mean." George put down the box and looked at his brother. "This was your idea. And when have you ever really cared about... Fred, you don't fancy Hermione, do you?" George finally worked out what was bothering his brother about playing a joke on someone.Fred had never felt bad about a prank, except in their second year when heliked Angelina and they decided to put frog spawn in her cereal.

"No, I don't! I'm just growing up, is all. I'm sorry if I feel bad about messing with the head of one of our friends." Fred turned around moodily and pretended to look at some other random items.

"You're softening, aren't you?" George accused. "You're turning into Percy!"

"I am not!" Fred whipped around and looked at his brother with flashing eyes. He would never be Percy. It was disgusting!

"Well, if you're not Percy, then you'll continue the plan, won't you?"

Fred considered this for a moment. He knew that if he didn't continue, he'd be mocked by his brother. There was nothing worse in the world to Fred than to be considered a wimp by his twin. He had to remain equal to George. He just had to. There was nothing more important to Fred. Not even Hermione.

"Yeah. Yeah! I'm gonna continue. And I'm gonna win!" Fred shouted,nodding his head.

"That's more like it," George said and they high-fived eachother. The guilt that Fred had been feeling all day grew so he could feel it throughout his entire body. He had never felt like this for any other person. Was he softening? Well, Fred thought. If I am softening, I'll just have to get over it. He went back to looking around at the various joke products.