Hermione sighed as she watched Ron stomp up the stairs and slam his door. Even now, two weeks after Fred had asked her out, he was still refusing to talk to anyone in the house (excluding Harry of course and Ginny, though she was talking with him whether he liked it or not). She knew he would be angry, but his constant cold shoulder was hurting her feelings and starting to agitate everyone in the house.

Fred tugged on her arm gently. "Ignore him. Come on, we're going to have fun today," he whispered in her ear. She nodded and walked out into the garage, followed closely by Tonks and Charlie. After much arguing, Mrs. Weasley had finally agreed to let the two of them actually leave Grimmauld Place to go on their date (the upstairs of the miserable mansion wasn't an ideal place after all).

Hermione stepped into the car and started the engine while Fred slipped into the passenger seat. Hermione started the car and backed out of the garage silently. She had to drive to Diagon Ally this time. The car hadn't been charmed like it had been the last time.

"So, exactly where are we going?" Hermione asked casually, trying to get her mind onto more appealing matters.

"We're flooing to my flat for dinner," Fred replied.

She furrowed her eyebrows quizzically. "But we just ate lunch…" she trailed off. Fred turned in his feat so he could face her more comfortably. "Then I guess we'll be there a while." Hermione giggled and glanced over at him, as he beamed at the laughter emitted from her lips. Her mood brightened considerably and they fell into easy and light conversation.

"Come on, it's just a ways up," Fred said, pulling Hermione in the direction of the flat the he and George shared. She struggled to keep up. While he wasn't as tall as Ron, he was still taller than her by two or three inches and his large strides (paired with his anxiousness to get home) made his stay three steps in front of him.

They finally stopped in front of a small two-story building. Hermione glanced from Fred, to the building, then back to Fred. He smiled brightly at her wide eyes. "You like the new paint job?" he asked. She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. For the first time in her life, she was speechless. In front of her stood a building splattered with green and orange paint that clashed horribly.

Fred smiled at her reaction. "George said that it should be orange—you know, to attract customers—and I wanted it green. So he painted it orange and I changed it to green and well…it got a little out of hand and kind of…backfired."

"Backfired?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"Well, we were trying to change the colors back to how we wanted it and we ended up only coloring pieces instead of the whole thing. It certainly catches the eye does it not?"

Hermione nodded and followed Fred inside the shop. The first floor was filled with different items placed throughout the room on different display tables, a small counter with trays full of canary creams and other sweet treats and a small currency register at the corner. "We're almost ready to open the shop," he informed her proudly. "We've been trying to stock up before we open."

"It looks wonderful," she told him. His smile grew brighter and he tugged her hand, leading her to a door behind the counter. The door led to a staircase, which led to another door, which led to a small apartment above the store. After a quick tour from Fred, Hermione learned that there were two bedrooms (one for each of the twins), a small kitchen and an even smaller bathroom, all surrounding one fair-sized den furnished with mismatched chairs and a sofa. But what really surprised Hermione were the stacks upon stacks of books placed around the room. "It's for the research," Fred informed her. Hermione stared at the books hungrily. "Well, then. I guess we should get to work," she said, walking over to the old sofa and sitting down, a large stack of books in hand. Fred followed her lead and cracked open the book closest to him.

Fred groaned in frustration as he closed another book. He had surely been through at least a hundred. "Let's take a break." He said, jumping up from the raggedy chair he had been sitting in for the past two hours.

Hermione looked up from the book she had been reading. "But we haven't found anything yet," she replied.

"Exactly," Fred retorted. "So, let's go get ice cream or something and take a break… Please," he added for affect. She nodded and allowed him to pull her off the couch. They talked casually as they walked down to a small ice cream parlor located a few blocks away from the shop.

The streets of Hogsmeade were filled with tension as witches and wizards walked down the street quickly. Voldemort's return had thrown the Wizarding world into a state of frenzy. The town's citizen's all eyed each other wearily as they skittered around, intent on gathering all of their necessities before hurrying back to their homes. Children stared out of the windows longingly, unable to go outside in fear of another attack. It was odd, seeing the town on such high alert, but Hermione knew that the town's inhabitants had every right to be apprehensive.

Hogsmeade was too close to Hogwarts—too close to Dumbledore and Harry and everything else that Voldemort despised. It was logical that the Death Eaters would want to gain control of the village.

"It's horrible isn't it," Fred asked as he watched Hermione absorb the world around them.

"What?" she asked, his voice bringing her back from her thoughts.

"There's no laughter anymore," he stated glumly. She nodded her head agreeing. It hardly felt the same. She absently wondered how she hadn't noticed it before.

They arrived in the small ice cream shop and quickly ordered their treats before sitting down at one of the many vacant tables. "We've been through over half the books in your flat and we still haven't found anything remotely related to this bond we have," Hermione stated, slightly frustrated with their lack of information. "It would be a lot easier if we actually knew what we're looking for."

Fred nodded in agreement. "This whole day has certainly been a waste. I'll have to get you back to headquarters soon. I thought we could grab a bite to eat at the Three Broomsticks before we floo back to Diagon Alley."

"Shouldn't we have eaten dinner before dessert?"

"Honestly 'Mione! Where's the fun in that?" he asked increduosly. Hermione smiled at his reasoning and took another bite of her ice cream.

"I had a fun time tonight," Hermione told Fred as he walked her to her bedroom door that night. Dinner had been fun, and conversation was not hard to find between the two. They had taken a short walk in a small park near the pub and finally headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, deciding that there wasn't enough time to restart their search for information.

Fred smiled widely. "Me too," he replied, then leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Well, except for the hours we spent with our noses in books. I would hav preferred to use that time for snogging."

He snickered as her cheeks turned hot pink. "I'm just kidding around, 'Mione," he said before hugging her tightly. "We should really do it again sometime," he informed her, taking a step back and heading for the stairs. As his foot hit the first step her turned one around one last time. He blew her an exaggerated kiss. "Good bye my lovely goddess—until we meet again!" Hermione's face turned a shade darker.

"Goddess, now is it," Ron bit out. Hermione turned to the door across hall, where Ron had obviously been eavesdropping. "That's just rich."

"Ron—" she tried, but he cut her off.

" I'd rather not hear your excuses, Hermione. Betrayal is betrayal no matter which way you slice it."

Hermione's eyes narrowed. What was he on about? She didn't betray anyone. It wasn't like she and Ron had been dating—she wasn't cheating on him with his older brother….she was just simply spending some time with him. She had nothing to be ashamed of. But before she could tell him any of this, he had slammed the door. Hermione sighed and entered her room. If Ron was going to be angry, that was his problem. She wasn't going to dwell on him any longer, she concluded as she changed into her pajamas. She had more important things to focus her energy on.

Author's note: Okay, I only wrote this chapter so I didn't violate my terms of service. Since the 6th book has come out, this story is obviously, alternate universe. Since this has been coming along so slowly, and it will be hard for me to continue in the fifth book's universe, I've decided to rework the plot slightly to make it go with the events in the sixth book. The plot won't change drastically, they will still be on the mission to find Sirius and it will focus mainly on Hermione and Fred, but it will take place the summer after sixth year/beginning of seventh year.

I want to thank all that have reviewed and encouraged me to continue the story. I'm sorry for the delay, and poor quality that this chapter possesses and I hope you will all come back and read the newer version. It will be much better. I plan on getting the first few chapters completely done before I start posting, so you won't have to wait as long in between chapters.

Thank you for your support and patience,

Kaitlyn