Chapter 24: Exposed

26th of September 1999

Leaving the twins behind after breakfast felt strange in a way that Hermione didn't have an explanation for. The evening together had been great of course, but that was no explanation for feeling this echo of sadness in her chest, was it? She'd see them again on Friday for Merlin's sake but that didn't seem to console her confused heart in the least. Why was she suddenly feeling like this? Just because of one faked kiss? It wasn't like it had meant anything in the first place and even if it had, it was 18 years ago for Gideon. The man was almost the age of her father now and there was no chance, that he'd start something with a twenty-year-old girl, right?

She shook her head in exasperation as she strolled down the old cobblestone street towards Spinner's End. She really had to get a grip on herself or this whole situation could get embarrassing rather quickly. Talking about embarrassing... Hermione stiffened in the doorframe on her way into the kitchen. There were several clothing articles strewn all over the floor and the furniture was in a state of disarray, that Hermione didn't want to think about, but thought about anyway. She closed her eyes with a groan.

"You're early," Severus' voice greeted her from somewhere in the back of the room and when she moved her head into that direction, she saw him coming down the stairs in a dressing gown with a lazy smile on his face.

"More like, you're late," Hermione said with a huff of annoyance and threw her jacket on the hallstand in the corner. "It's 11."

Severus snorted. "Alright, you win. Sorry, we had a long evening."

"No details please," she said quickly and started casting cleaning charms on the sofa, before sitting down. Severus looked at her with a raised brow but didn't comment. Instead, he moved through the kitchen with ease and prepared a tray of breakfast with practised movements.

"You're going back upstairs?" Hermione asked and he snorted with a grin.

"Absolutely. But as you don't want any details..." a trailed off and Hermione leapt up from the sofa with a huff.

"You know what? I think I'm going out again," she said and summoned her jacket. "Take your time doing whatever you're doing and when you're finished and decent just send me a Patronus with a discreet message, alright? I'll be in Diagon Alley."

Severus shrugged. "Will do. But don't expect one too soon. I haven't seen Charity for ages."

Diagon Alley was quiet at this time of the year. The school year was already in full swing and all the kids were back at Hogwarts. Christmas was still far away, so there was no specific reason for the masses to rush into the cosy shopping alley and Hermione was looking forward to strolling through the different shops in peace. She'd check out the newest books at Flourish and Blott's and if there was still time afterwards, she'd make her promised visit in the Weasley twin's joke shop. This plan held for about 5 minutes. Hermione was just about to enter the book shop when she spotted Lupin and Pettigrew through the shop window. They seemed to be animatedly discussing over some kind of book. She sighed and decided to avoid an awkward meeting with the Marauders and head to Fred and George's shop right away. WWW was at the same place that it was before and even if the design of the façade was less opulent than it was previously known to her, it was still a bright and colourful spot in the middle of the alley. Hermione smiled to herself and entered the shop full of happy anticipation.

The interior of the shop was an explosion of colours and Hermione had to stop and blink for a moment, before her eyes could truly relay to her brain what she was seeing. At the shop ceiling, there seemed to be a permanent display of fireworks which rained their colourful but harmless sparks down onto the customers. It was beautiful but distracting at the same time and Hermione had some problems spotting her red-haired friends among the sparkling lights and animated little animals, that zoomed through the air with dazzling speed.

"Hermione!" called a cheerful voice to her right and before she could even turn her head into the right direction a sparkly-eyed redhead stepped in front of her. "So happy you came to see our little shop."

"George," she said with a smile and hugged her friend with a happy grin. "I really wouldn't call this shop little. Next to "boring", that might be the worst adjective to describe this place." She grinned and looked around in awe. "It's different from the place I know, which is a bit confusing, but that just gives me a reason to explore everything again."

The man next to her laughed. "Go ahead then. Take a look around and if you have any questions Fred and I aren't far away." He winked at her before he moved to the next customer with a happy smile on his face. Hermione looked around and casually strolled along the aisles. Some of the products were new to her, like the variety of animated animals and magical creatures on display, but there were also products missing and Hermione looked around the shop in the hope to find them somewhere else.

"What are you looking for Hermione?" Fred's voice sounded to her left and the man came strolling towards her with bouncing steps. Hermione smiled shyly towards him, as it was still strange for her to see that particular Weasley happy and alive at this age.

"The Wonder Witch line. The tonic for the hair was great, helped with the frizz and everything," she admitted with pink cheeks. But Fred just looked at her in wonder.

"Sorry, we don't have that one, but it actually sounds like a great idea. Are you still around in half an hour? We have a lunch break then and if you like we could go upstairs together and you tell us about all the stuff, that you're missing from our shelves. I'm really curious what else we invented in the time you come from."

She looked at him speechlessly for a second as her head contemplated what he was asking. Was that somehow cheating? But why would it be? It was not like they were stealing those ideas from somebody else, right? And maybe this could help her new favourite Weasleys on their feet with the shop. "Alright, I'll stick around for you then. If you have some paper and a quill for me, I could make some notes while I am waiting for you to close the shop." Fred grinned happily and a moment later George stepped towards her with the required items. Hermione blinked in surprise.

"That was fast," she said and looked at the two of them with wide eyes. The redheads grinned cheekily.

"Time's money honey," Fred said and winked. "Huh, that rhymes."

Hermione laughed. "See you in half an hour then. And don't let me distract you from your work. I'll ask all my questions later." And just like that she set herself to work.

"Ah, so that's the Wonder Witch line you were talking about earlier," Fred said and looked at her with wide eyes. "Wonder why we didn't come up with this one here." He scratched his head. "Because the idea is actually quite brilliant."

Hermione smiled encouragingly. "It was quite the bestseller in my time, same with the Pygmy Puffs. I get the impression that you are mostly catering to the needs of boys at the moment, not so much the witches. But that way you are missing about half of the market."

The boys nodded in awe. "You're right," Fred breathed and looked at her with wide eyes. "Do you think… could you try to describe the things you saw in our shop back then?" George asked her with almost something like shyness in his voice. "Because the better you can describe the products, the easier it will be for us to recreate them."

Hermione took a bite from her sandwich and looked at them contemplatively. She really wanted to help them, but what they were asking of her wasn't really easy as she didn't understand half of the things she saw back then. If there was just a way to show them… She halted. There was a way to show them.

"I'm not really that good at describing those things, but I could show you some of my memories from back then," she suggested and looked at them uncertainly. "Your uncles gave me a Pensive for my twentieth birthday and…"

"You'd do that?" George cried out, " Awesome!" Fred shouted and they leapt from their chairs only to engulf her in a hug from both sides. She smiled happily.

"Just tell me what day and time is most convenient for you," she said and hugged them back. But they just looked at her with a confused grin.

"What day?" George said before his twin continued. "Today of course. There's no chance we want to wait longer than necessary for that kind of stuff. It would be like finding a treasure chest and deciding to wait until Christmas to open it."

Hermione nodded in understanding and pulled back from them. "Alright, this evening then. I'll come to your place around 8."

"Perfect!" they chorused and before Hermione knew what was happening, each of them pressed a big kiss on her cheek. She blushed but if the twins took notice of it, they didn't comment.

It looked like Severus and his wife would have just another undisturbed evening to themselves.

After finishing her lunch with the excited Weasley twins Hermione finally managed to visit the book store, as Remus and Pettigrew were no longer in sight. Hermione was still a bit embarrassed that she had avoided them in the first place, but she decided to fight this particular battle when she felt up to it. And that wasn't today. At the moment she already had enough things on her plate to sort out, how to leave her old life in the other timeline behind and build a new one here for herself. It wasn't only about forgetting Ron, but also finding new friends, finishing her NEWTs and earning a living on her own. She felt bad to always be dependent on Severus or the Prewetts but without having completed her exams it would be nearly impossible to find someone who would employ her. And so Hermione would just have to focus on her studies as much as possible and still manage to sort through the memories that kept returning back to her. After all of that was done, she would worry about Lupin and the other Marauders and Hermione didn't see this happening for quite some time.

Severus' Patronus caught her after half an hour of browsing through her favourite magical bookstore, but as Hermione didn't have any money to buy something anyway, she was happy that she could finally return to her room and make herself ready for the evening, because she wanted to prepare herself as best as she could, for showing her memories to Fred and George. She decided to extract the relevant memories beforehand, as she would most likely be more able to focus on everything without the giddy glances of the over-excited Weasleys and after she was finished, there were several vials full of glowing white memories, which she carefully pocketed together with the Pensieve. Still, the evening came faster than she had anticipated and before Hermione knew it, she was standing in front of Fred and George's front door with her heart beating nervously in her chest. The first and last time she had been to that place was full of sad and painful memories for her. After all, it was the last place she had been to in her original timeline. Coming back here now in this other universe felt … strange.

"Hey Georgie, our favourite time traveller is here to see us," Fred shouted into the flat, just as he opened the door and winked at her with a smile. "So glad you didn't change your mind on this. I admit George and I are already a bit over excited and were counting the minutes until your arrival."

Hermione smiled affectionately. "Then it's good I am usually on time," she said and stepped inside. The flat that lay ahead of her was very different from the place that she had seen during her last visit. It wasn't only much cleaner and in better shape, but the interior was also much simpler and probably much cheaper than the one in the other flat. Hermione didn't mind, on the contrary. She felt immediately at home.

Fred led her into the living room and motioned for her to sit down on the worn sofa, where George was waiting already cross-legged and with wide eyes. But seeing her, he immediately leapt up from his place and pulled her in an affectionate hug. "So glad you came to see us," he mumbled before sitting back down with rosy cheeks. Hermione smiled.

"I promised you I would. And I am always keeping my promises." Saying these words to George felt special because to her they meant so much more than just appearing to an appointed meeting. It was the vow to George that brought her here in the first place and seeing him here starry-eyed and happy, only strengthened her resolve to stay put in this timeline. Her magic must have felt this too, as the golden bands that weaved themselves around their bodies while making the vow, suddenly appeared again and glowed bright gold around their bodies. Hermione stared at them with wide eyes and she could see George in front of her starting to panic.

"Merlin, what is that?" he gasped and stumbled backwards onto the sofa. Hermione stared at him speechlessly, before studying the magical cords that connected them. And to her dismay, they didn't look like they were about to vanish anytime soon. She sighed tiredly.

"It's the vow I made to you George, the other you in fact," she said carefully and stepped closer. "May I sit down next to you? I swear I'll explain everything George, but please don't freak out. Either one of you."

Two matched sets of eyes blinked at her in confusion. "Freak out? Why would we do that? What did you do Hermione?" Fred said and sat down next to her so that she was sandwiched between the two of them.

She swallowed heavily. "It's actually quite a fortunate coincidence, that I brought the Pensieve with me today. Because for you to understand what happened and to be able to actually believe it, I think you'll need to see for yourselves."

George looked at her with an uncomfortable expression. "What are you going to show us, Hermione?"

She smiled sadly at them. "Everything."