The commotion of Harry and Hermione's arrival continued up until Arthur and Percy Weasely arrived home. Percy, looking unsurprisingly pristine and bothered, sat stifly and frowning at the table beside Charlie. Despite arriving, the young man stayed very quiet amongst the chatter of the table.

"Percy feeling alright?" Harry asked Ron quietly.

"No, he's got a job at the Ministry. Always comes home like he's achieved some noble thing. Quite annoying, really," Ron responded. Percy looked up and scowled.

"If it is anyones business," he started. "I had a very hectic day at work. It's been non-stop with Mr Crouch's meetings, and I am very tired."

The twins rolled their eyes at this, and Charlie patted him on the back with a laugh. "Welcome to adulthood, I'll get you a port," Charlie said, smiling. And at this, Percy managed a smile too. To herself, Hermione thought he seemed very childish- like a toddler throwing a tantrum for candy. Laughing to herself at this minor joke, she quickly put food in her mouth, but not before realising she was being watched by Fred, who smiled too, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

Dinner continued like normal- Harry and Hermione were eager to catch up with Arthur Weasely, and learn more about Charlie, who kept the whole table entertained with stories about dragon taming and, more interestingly to Hermione, dragon rescuing. It was Percy that was first to clock off, followed by Mr and Mrs Weasely, and then surprisingly Ginny, who Hermione hoped would stay up to give her company amongst the boys. Hermione sat listening to Charlie as he shared a story about a Chinese FireBall that he had more recently discovered rampaging a village in Tibet.

"Rubbish! As if we wouldn't of heard about an awol dragon in Tibet," Fred challenged. "About as true as the idea of you having a girlfriend." and at this Ron and George laughed.

"Well if you wait and see, little brother, you'll find this FireBall to be quite a story soon enough," Charlie responded casually, smiling at his siblings as if knowing a big secret.

"Whats that s'posed to mean?" it was Ronald who asked this, but Charlie only chuckled and his three present brothers and Harry all seemed very curious.

"Honestly, you guys, just trust me on this one. Anyways, I'm feeling quite tired now, I'll catch you in the morning. Harry, Hermione, it was good to finally meet you," and with this, Charlie was gone.

The four boys then continued to talk the World Cup, which as much as Hermione was interested, she didn't care to join in. Instead, she moved to a seat in the living room and pick up her book that was on the coffee table. It was the same from her bus ride: Advanced New Theories of Numerology. It was a fifth year book, but she understood it just as well as anything. And so, almost like a switch, Hermione began to quietly study to herself.

Feeling as though she'd only just started, Hermione payed no attention to when Ron eventually went to sleep, and similarly didn't notice when Harry later followed. The "Night, Mione" 's unprocessed to the young witch. It had been nearly a full hour in the chair when she was finally pulled from reality by a familiar voice.

"Whatcha reading there?" one of the twins asked. She genuinely couldn't tell which of the two she was talking to in this lighting; but that made no difference to her attitude either way. She quickly glanced at the kitchen to see if his counterpart was there, but with no luck.

"A book about arithmancy. Nothing too serious, I'd just like to stay ahead on whats to come, and I'm quite fond of the subject so its an easy read," Hermione responded, slipping a finger between the pages and closing the book to display its cover.

"Ah, very interesting indeed. Not to me, but to someone probably," the twin smiled. "Anyways more to the point. I'm headed to bed but I've been asked to apologise on behalf of my dear brother. He says, 'I should have said sorry to Hermione, but too late I guess' which is Freds way of either asking me to say sorry for him, or feeling genuinely embarrassed. Not really his thing, apologies. But he was quite upset at how uncomfortable he'd made you earlier, and he is sorry."

Hermione was taken aback by this. She now knew it was George, but her confusion grew until she realised he was referencing Fred nearly crashing into her earlier in the day. Now it was Hermione's turn to feel sheepish, because she genuinely didn't think of it as a big deal. She was uncomfortable, but it wasn't anything terrible- it was just her being surprised by his presence. Even more than that, she was confused as to why Fred felt apologetic about it. Brushing this aside, she hurried to tell George that all was fine and well and there was no reason for either twin to apologise about anything, forcing a small laugh to push past this strange topic.

"If you say its okay then we're good," George smiled as he stood, and stretched his arms. "But don't go too shy around my brother, he might start to think you've grown a liking to him." And at this the twin walked up the stairs, leaving Hermione to her thoughts.

"Strange boys," she mumbled to herself. As she sat idly staring at her closed book she did think about Fred and she managed to laugh at the idea of having a crush on him. Not that he was unattractive to Hermione, but more because she couldn't understand what there was to like about someone as mischievous and unruly as Fred. Deciding she was finished reading for the night, Hermione turned off the gaslamp and started for the bedroom.

Please let me know how this is so far. This chapter is a lot shorter and I'm unsure of whether thats a good thing or not.