Chapter 3
"We promise to be good," Fred said, grinning wickedly in a none too reassuring manner.
That did it. Hermione panicked, looking around her quickly. She didn't want to be in a house full of sick people, no matter how much she liked them, under any circumstances; she definitely didn't want to be in a house full of sick people without knowing whether or not she would come out in one piece.
"No! Er, no, thank you, I'm sure there's some other room to stay in," she said in a high pitched voice. Fred looked at George.
"It's almost like she doesn't trust us," he said, shaking his head. George sighed.
"That's the problem with kids these days. No trust," he replied. Hermione didn't miss the wink that passed between them.
"It's just, er, are you sure your mum would be all right with that?" she asked desperately.
"Mum trusts us!" Fred said indignantly. George looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, well, I suppose she doesn't."
"But we can change that," George put in, grinning. "After all, our room is one of the three safe zones in the house. But I suppose you could sleep in the kitchen if you wanted to." Hermione decidedly did not want to sleep in the kitchen, but she also doubted anything to do with the twins' room was safe.
"Or the living room, but then you'd need to put up with mummy dearest," Fred added. Hermione sighed, wishing that she could have stayed with her parents after all.
She really was in a predicament. On one hand there were the twins, and any horrors their room might contain. It was one thing to spend some time reading in there, and quite another to sleep there, completely defenseless. Then, on the other hand, there was Mrs. Weasley. Molly was a nice woman, truly she was, but she was stretched so thin taking care of all her children (and husband) that she was possibly more dangerous than the twins. At least anything the twins did could be reversed magically, right?
"Fine," she said with a sigh, "If you can convince your mum, I'll stay with you."
---
That night, as Hermione trudged down the hall to the twins' room, she was rethinking her decision. She had been surprised Mrs. Weasley had agreed, but then again, as frazzled as she was she probably didn't even know what she had been agreeing to. Maybe there was still time to switch - she could stay with Ginny! A very sick Ginny, but Ginny all the same…No.That was a sure way to get sick. She would make it through this without catching the bug, and if that meant pink hair (or no hair) for a few days, then so be it.
Hermione knocked, and the door creaked open menacingly. She rolled her eyes and stepped inside. As she crossed the threshold there was a loud pop, and a thick green smoke started filling the room.
"Quick! Open the window!" Fred yelled. George complied, throwing open the window and fanning the smoke outside.
"I told you to add the leprechaun hair before the porcupine quills!" Fredsnapped, sounding eerily like Professor Snape. Apparently, even with the creaking door, they hadn't noticed her. George shrugged.
"Well, we got something," he said, gesturing at the remainders of the smoke.
"What do you think it does?" Fred asked, annoyance vanishing as he examined it as closely as possible, careful not to touch it. George shrugged again, looking at the smoke sideways. They shared a quick grin.
Hermione realised what George was going to do a second before he did it.
"No! That could be dang-" she was cut off as George stuck his entire head into the smoke and breathed deeply. There was a cracking sound, much like the noise someone made when Apparating, and he turned into a very, very large leprechaun. Fred burst into laughter.
"See," he said, turning to Hermione (whose yelling seemed to have alerted him to her presence). "No harm done." The leprechaun whacked his arm, but Fred pretended not to notice. "An improvement, if anything...We need to remember this one." He picked up a tattered piece of parchment from his bedside table and scribbled down a few notes. George the leprechaun sat on the floor, playing with a tassel on his bright green coat.
"Are ye goin' to be changin' me back?" he asked in a thick Irish brogue a good two octaves higher than it would normally be. Fred looked over at him and giggled.
"Maybe I will, maybe I wo-" The leprechaun whacked him again, this time harder. Fred laughed before waving his wand, muttering a spell. George changed slowly back, but kept his pointy ears and green coat. They looked at each other once again before bursting into laughter (they seemed to do that a lot, Hermione noted dryly), andslapping each other on the shoulder.
"Well done, well done!" Fred said. "This will be one for the market."
---
Another ten minutes later (in which all traces of smoke were cleared from the room – it wouldn't do for one of them to turn into leprechaun overnight) the three of them had changed into their pajamas (Hermione in a separate room, of course), and were trying to sort out the sleeping situation (which really was turning into quite a hassle).
"Hermione, you can have the bed," Fred said graciously. George nodded.
"Yes. You can kip on Fred's bunk,"he said. Fred shook his head.
"George's bunk. He can sleep on the floor." George shook his head.
"No, no. You offered, so she can take-" he stopped, as Fred was apparently not listening. As a matter of fact,Fred was halfway up to the top bunk already. "Oh no you don't!" he muttered, grabbing Fred around the legs and pulling him backwards. They fell on the floor and immediately started bickering, their arguments punctuated by pokes and prods.
Hermione watched them quarrel for awhile. Then, when it became obvious they weren't going to get anywhere with this anytime soon, she sighed and curled up on the bottom bunk. She pulled the worn green blankets up to her chin, and with the moon as her nightlight she was lulled to sleep by squabbling twins.
A/N: There you are, so sorry it took so long to update! I thought that I would have it done by last week, but I kept getting writer's block. At least this is a bit longer...And for those reading both of my fics, War of the Weasleys should be updated by Sunurday or so. Anyway, not too much about the sickness, but it'll come back in later chapters. Oh, and the leprechaun thing wasn't completely random (hint).
As for the shout-outs, I decided that I had too many WONDERFUL reviewers to do individual ones without making the chapter seem longer than it is. I hope you understand that I really appreciate them, even if I don't do the shout-outs. Speaking of which, please review, it makes me want to update!
