When they reached the common room, Fred took out a deck of cards. "Another rousing game of Exploding Snap then?" he turned to everyone.

"Sure." Said Ginny "Same teams as last night?"

"Hold it!" interrupted Hermione "Some of us have to finish some of our homework" indicating Ron and Harry. Everyone groaned.

"C'mon Hermione, it's the holidays!" whined Ginny.

"It's not the holidays yet Ginny, so until that time…" Hermione rounded on Ron and Harry.

Ron and Harry grinned. "Don't worry Hermione" said Ron "We finished our homework this morning before going down to breakfast."

"It's true Hermione" said Harry when she looked at him.

"Well that settles it then" interjected Fred "so, are we still on for Exploding Snap?"

"Of course we are!" replied George "same teams as last night" he added, answering Ginny's question.

"I don't feel like playing anymore" said Hermione with a trace of bitterness in her voice. She was obviously a bit embarrassed about the whole Harry-Ron-actually-doing-their-homework thing.

"Aww… come on Hermione!" said Harry "if you don't join, the teams won't be equal."

"Yeah Hermione, one of us might have to sit out." added Ron "are you sure you don't want to join?"

"Yes Ron, I'm sure" said Hermione with a tone of finality in her voice. "Besides, I want to catch up on my reading." Everyone looked disappointed as she crossed the room and sat down and started reading a book.

"Well, I guess someone has to sit out then." Said George quietly.

"I'll do it" said Fred without a hint of regret in his voice. Everyone looked confused.

"Do what?" asked Ron.

"Sit out, you prat!" said Fred, looking annoyed.

"No!"

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean, no! You can't-"

"Ok….this discussion is going nowhere" interrupted George. "Ron, shove off. Fred can do whatever he wants, and if you can't deal with that, too bad." He leaned a bit closer to Fred so no one else could hear him "Are you sure you want to sit out mate? I mean, you were the one who suggested that we play in the first place."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Replied Fred, and handed George the deck of cards. "So…" he raised his voice so that the others could hear him, "new teams then. I'll just watch you guys from over here." He sat down beside Hermione.

"Ok" Fred heard George saying "new teams, me and Ginny against Ron and Harry." Everyone agreed, and started playing.

"You know, you didn't have to do that." Hermione told Fred, looking up from her book. "You could have played."

"It would have been an unfair advantage anyway." Replied Fred. Hermione smiled. "What are you reading?" he asked, looking at the book that Hermione had put down.

"Silver on the Tree… it was a birthday present from my parents." She answered.

"Ahhh… I see" said Fred, he had nothing else but that to say, but he wanted to keep talking to Hermione. She started to laugh. Fred raised his eyebrows, "What's so funny?"

Hermione pointed at Ron and Fred started laughing as well. Apparently, Ron was still wearing the pink bow that Fred had conjured up when Ron was christened 'Ronalyn' during breakfast, but nobody gave an effort to remind him that he was still wearing it.

"I don't think he knows he still has it on." Said Hermione, with a great effort to stifle her giggles, but to no avail. "Should we point it out to him?"

"Nah… he'll remember soon enough." laughed Fred "If you ask me, I don't think he's forgotten that he has it on… if you know what I mean." he snorted, "Besides, I think he took it as a compliment when I said that he looked better as a girl." They burst out laughing.

"What are you two laughing at?" asked George. He, Ginny, Harry, and Ron had stopped playing and were now looking at them. None of the two could suppress their laughter long enough to explain what exactly they were laughing at. Fred caught George's eye and understood completely; it was a twin thing. George looked at Ron and started laughing.

"What are you laughing about?" asked Ron looking scandalized as George started to hold on to Harry for support.

"It's n-not exactly a se-secret" George managed to say before he collapsed and started rolling on the floor clutching his stomach.

Ron faced Harry and Ginny. "Do any of you know what's going on?" Little did Ron know, Fred was pointing to Ron's head. But Harry and Ginny noticed what Fred was pointing at and Harry tried as hard as he could to keep his face straight while Ginny collapsed on the floor in a fit of giggles. Ron stared at Harry. "Well? What's going on?"

"George is right" said Harry, now starting to laugh "It's not really a secret."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron demanded looking at everyone who were still laughing.

Fred finally regained his composure. "Let's put it this way, now we know that Ginny has the older sister she's always wanted. Of course, I don't think pink is really your color." With that said, Fred sank back onto the couch and began clutching his sides as a new wave of laughter came. Ron finally realized what Fred was talking about and pulled the bow out of his hair. Everyone realized that the joke was over and fell silent, waiting for Ron's reaction.

"I've had this thing in my hair the entire time?" he asked them looking bewildered. Everyone nodded. Ron smiled "Blimey! Good thing no one else saw me."

"You're not mad at us?" Hermione asked cautiously "For not telling you, I mean?"

"No, of course not." chuckled Ron "it's a stupid thing to get worked up over." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Spoken like our true brother." said Fred.

"Personally, I thought you were gonna go ballistic on us." said George.

"We're sorry we laughed at you though." Ginny said.

"Yeah, really sorry." agreed Harry. They were all reassured that Ron wasn't upset in the slightest.

"Truth be told, if this had happened to anyone else I wouldn't tell them either." joked Ron. "So… how 'bout we go down to lunch? I'm starving."

They all went down to lunch and after they had finished eating, they went out onto the grounds and had a snowball fight for the rest of the afternoon until it started to get dark. They went back into the Great Hall for dinner (Lavender was with them) and went back to the common room to relax in front of the fire.

"Today was fun." said Ginny as she stretched in front of the fire.

"Almost as fun as yesterday." said George.

"Plus the holidays are coming up." added Fred.

"Are you coming to The Burrow for the holidays, Hermione?" asked Harry.

Hermione shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"Come on Hermione," said Ron "Harry's coming."

"Please Hermione, it won't be much fun without you." begged Ginny.

"Ok… I'll ask my parents tomorrow." replied Hermione. A few hours later, everyone got up and said their goodnights.