A/N: I've changed the second part of this story (it's slighty more in-character) and broke them into two separate chapters. Enjoy.

"The Orange Meaning"

II (of II)

Homework is a dreadful thing. It's a monster, that, if left unchecked, grows larger and larger and larger, until it is eating you alive and swallowing all the fun in life. To Hermione homework was the fun in life, and thus the large, large, large monster never held a threat. That is, until the teachers at Hogwarts had found a new way to feed homework, making it get bigger and bigger, even while caged.

The ugly monster was snarling at Hermione, and finally, she felt like she had had enough. She couldn't keep the monster pacified, couldn't stop it from slobbering over the fun bits of learning, and couldn't pacify it into a gentle sleep.

The library, generally a sanctuary, turned into a prison, with something much worse than Dementors. It had books and confusing words and tongue-twisting spells that made one's eyes hurt just reading them.

Not that Hermione had finally grown tired of doing homework or reading books or living the brown way of life. It had just become physically exhausting, and she felt like she needed a nap, a very long nap . . . outside . . . in the sun . . . underneath that tree, right outside the window she was sitting next to . . . . Her eyes blurred from exhaustion, and she felt a panic welling up inside of her, causing her to remember that she only had a few hours to finish Professor Snape's essay, and McGonagall's essay, and Vector's essay, and . . . .

"Hermione?" asked a familiar voice.

"You okay?" asked the same voice, only it was on the other side of her.

She looked up and saw two identical heads staring down at her. "Fred? George?"

One of them smiled. She decided that it was going to be George. "Let's go outside."

They both picked her up by her arms, each on either side of her, and led her down the hallways, and finally outside, right to that tree that was outside the window she had been sitting next to, back in library, with the monster of homework breathing its rank breath against her side.

They placed her against the tree, her eyelids dropping. One can only run so long from sleep, before sleep catches up. And sleep is a good runner, let me tell you.

One of the them was rubbing her back and the other had his hand on her thigh. She looked up and saw their faces, saw a mole, not a freckle, on George's neck, and she saw their hair, a golden orange in the warm autumn sunlight.

She moved her legs out from underneath her, not caring if she was wearing a skirt (Fred and George didn't mind either). "I really want to finish that essay," she said, more out of habit then out of real protest.

"'Really want to?'" questioned George

"Yes, I really want to."

"Don't you mean, 'need to?'"

She nodded her head, feeling that she really didn't want to bother with words at a time like this. She was forty-three years old and getting ready to live with her twenty cats who were all named after some famous muggle actor.

"Good," they said, leaning back against the tree with her.

Her right hand was entwined with Fred's left hand, and her left hand was entwined with George's right one, and she looked up, noticing that the leaves were turning to a crisp orange. She felt calm and strangely content, like she was lying with her older brothers. Ron and Harry would always be her best friends, but Fred and George were her brothers, looking out for her. Life seemed simple right then, uncomplicated by trivial things such as homework. She could do anything, she realized, seeing the promise of possibilities in the way the wind blew her hair from her face, and cleaned the dirt that homework's grubby hands had soiled her with.

"Is this what the Orange Meaning of Life is?"she asked, looking at sky and wondering why she'd never seen such a lovely shade of blue before.

"Yes Hermione," said George. She felt his chest move with every word and leaned back into him.

"This is it," said Fred. She felt his heartbeat pulsing against her shoulder and his thigh against her own.

She closed her eyes, and she was seeing orange.

fin.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it. Any comments are welcome. Thanks for reading!