Chapter 27: Friends
5th of June 1981
When Hermione left Gringott's again half an hour later she felt like celebrating and by the look of it she wasn't the only one. Fabian and Gideon had both slung an arm around her waist and led her down the stairs with a wide grin. Severus walked proudly in front of them while holding his head high and letting the blonde wavy hair he was still calling his own for now playing in the wind. It was a far cry from the grumpy and insecure boy she had met over a month ago and Hermione asked herself, how much of his current behavior was show and how much of it was real. Severus didn't have many friends and his childhood and youth hadn't been easy. When Hermione looked at him now she hoped that the worst days lay already behind him. But as her friend was still officially a Death Eater and his master pretty much alive, this was probably a hopeless wish.
"Let's go somewhere and celebrate," Hermione suddenly said and looked at her boys with a large smile. "Today we achieved more than I ever dared to hope. And we did it all together."
The twins looked at her with a wide smile, while Severus' expression remained unreadable. "These are dangerous times Hermione. I'm not sure if it is wise to be seen out in public. You never know who's out to get you."
Hermione nodded in understanding. "You're probably right. But no one says we have to go out in the wizarding world. There're lots of nice Muggle pubs in London and no one will know us there. And you're still in disguise anyway."
Severus thoughtfully weighed his head, before finally giving in with a sigh. "Alright, we'll go to a pub together. But if this gets me killed, I am coming back to haunt you."
She shrugged. "That's only fair. As long as you're doing it with more charm then Moaning Myrtle I'm alright with it."
To make sure they were far enough away from Diagon Alley Hermione brought them to a club she had once been to with Ginny and Luna after the war. It was a lively little club right in the center of London and in an attempt to cheer each other up from everything they lost, the girls had decided to try to have a bit of fun. It had worked for a short while and so the evening with the two girls was one of the fond memories Hermione had from her time after the war.
The club was different in 1981 though. Not only the interior was different and less extravagant, but also the guests frequenting it were a bit rougher than she had expected.
"Um Okay, this is a bit different than it was in my time," Hermione admitted and looked around. There was a huge dance platform in the middle of the club, which was already vibrating with life even though it was still early in the evening. They had all gone home to the Prewett's house to freshen up a bit, but as Hermione was full of energy and good spirits she could not be held at home any longer than necessary. She was giddy and wanted to celebrate.
"Looks nice enough," Severus said unimpressed and moved towards the bar. "What would you like to get?"
The boys stuck to beer and shots, while Hermione decided to try some of the cocktails that were listed on the menu. The cocktail the waiter brought to her table was blue and sweet and Hermione felt its effects only after a few sips.
"Merlin, this stuff is much stronger than it tastes. I'm not really much of a drinker, so this could get awkward quite soon. Please don't let me do anything too stupid alright?"
Fabian and Gideon looked at her with matching grins. "We wouldn't dream of it. Don't worry princess, we'll protect you, even from yourself."
Hermione laughed happily and took another sip of her drink before her eyes fell on Severus, who had drowned two shots of a suspicious green liquid next to her and looked at the dancing couples in the middle of the room with an almost mournful gaze. It was like all the cheerfulness and self-assuredness from before had been stripped from him and what remained was his trademark scowl on a foreign face.
"Severus, what's wrong?" she asked him and carefully touched his arm. He looked at her with tired, sad eyes.
"Even if we managed to save Lily, she will never be mine, will she? She's made her decision long ago but I keep asking myself, what could have been if I hadn't made friends with the wrong people, hadn't called her a..."
She nodded in understanding and sighed. "She might have been with you now instead, but she might as well not. We will never know, but I think it's quite sure that she will not leave James behind, now that they have Harry. And she shouldn't." She looked at her friend with a stern expression. "Loving someone without being loved in return is hard," she said and sighed, as she remembered the years she had been pining after Ron. Seeing him with Lavender had almost broken her and she could only imagine that it was the same for Severus now. "I have been there and done that for years and I know it hurts." She put her hand on his shoulder in the hope to comfort him and he carefully leaned his now blonde head against her arm in return.
"I don't want to end like him, like the Severus you showed me. It was horrible just seeing it and I really don't want to be like that. But what if it's my destiny?"
Hermione smiled at him. "Nobody but you decides who you are, Severus. Even if it is your destiny, try to change it. Because that's exactly what we are trying to do and I'd say at the moment we are quite successful."
Fabian and Gideon who were sitting at her other side grinned widely, before downing another shot at the same time and finally, Severus smiled shyly back at them. "Alright, I am going to change my fate. Lily Evans might be lost to me, but I refuse to become a grumpy and lonely old man." He nodded firmly and looked at them in determination. "I am going to change my future and I will start today."
Hermione smiled and looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes. "Good, now dance with me," she said and offered him her arm. For a moment he stared at her with wide eyes, before looking carefully towards the twins.
"Are you sure?" he asked but Hermione nodded resolutely.
"Absolutely, come on." With that, she just took him by the sleeve and pulled him towards the dance floor. Severus followed her without struggle but his face showed that he felt very unsure about the whole thing. But Hermione just smiled at him encouragingly and started to dance to the music playing around them. His first moves were still stiff and awkward, but it didn't take too long until a small smile started to tug on the corner of his mouth and he looked more and more sure of what he was doing. He wasn't an accomplished dancer by any means, but Hermione didn't care. Today it was just about the fun and fun they had. As the second song started they were giggling along with each other while trying out dance moves they saw the others do with growing enthusiasm. That was until Fabian and Gideon appeared at their sides with a wide smile on their lips.
"Mind if we join you?" they asked and started to dance along with them. Hermione smiled and made space for them, while Severus only shrugged. And so they danced and Hermione had as much fun, as she didn't have in ages. She knew that the war would catch up with them soon, but today she allowed herself to be happy – and happy she was.
"Looks like Severus has an admirer," Gideon suddenly whispered into her ear and really – when she looked up a beautiful blonde woman was dancing around her friend with shining eyes.
"Should we help him?" she asked, but it was so noisy, that she had to press her ear directly to Gideon's ear to be heard.
"It doesn't look like he needs help at all," Gideon whispered back and just then she saw, that the foreign woman was suddenly dancing very close to Severus and her friend said something to her with an excited glint in his eyes.
"Looks like he's just about to get over his crush on Lily," Fabian suddenly murmured into her other ear and she could feel his breath tickling her neck. Hermione nodded happily.
"Good for him. But I guess for today it's now only the three of us," she said, just as the music changed into another, much quieter song. Hermione saw, that the blonde woman was suddenly in Severus' arms, where she continued to dance with him. Hermione looked at the two of them with a confused blink.
"Don't worry about him," Fabian murmured into her ear, before turning her towards him. "He's a big boy. And you've still got us to dance." With that, he pulled her into his arms and started to sway to the music.
"Shouldn't we maybe skip that song and go back to the bar? What about Gideon?" she asked awkwardly, but before Fabian could reply she could suddenly feel Gideon pressing himself to her back while embracing her from behind.
Fabian chuckled into her ear. "Don't worry about him, Hermione. We're magical twins. We're happy to share."
Hermione looked at him with wide eyes and she could feel her cheeks starting to burn embarrassedly. But luckily it was too dark in the room for them to see. Dancing with two men at the same time should have felt awkward or been difficult, but with Fabian and Gideon, it was strangely not. They moved in perfect synchro and not once she got squished or stepped on her feet. Hermione secretly started to enjoy the attention of those handsome intelligent men. She knew that it was probably wrong because she had Ron waiting for her back at home, but if she was honest with herself, she didn't even know if she'd ever be able to return to her time. It wasn't like she would let anything serious happen between the three of them anyway. But Hermione wanted to celebrate and enjoy the evening, she told herself as her heart was hammering excitedly in her chest, and Fabian and Gideon looked like they were up to the task.
1st of October 1999
"I'm going out today," Hermione said and tied the comfortable new boots that she had just bought today in a nice little muggle shoe shop. "It's Friday and Fabian and Gideon have suggested, that we do something together once a week."
Severus smiled widely at her. "Like what? Dancing?" he said and waggled his brows.
"Oh, do shut up," she scolded him with pink cheeks. "Shouldn't have told you that I remembered that evening. Who was that blonde girl anyway?"
Her friend looked at her smugly. "Her name was Alice. We met a few times before she met somebody else."
Hermione looked at him and instantly felt pity for him. "I'm sorry. Was it something serious between the two of you?"
But Severus just snorted amusedly. "Not really no, we were basically just shagging each other's brains out."
She looked at him with wide eyes and red cheeks, before she hastily grabbed her jacket from the coatrack. "Um, alright. I think I'll be off now."
"Alright," her friend said and waved her off with a chuckle. "Have fun."
"We're only bowling," Hermione murmured and closed the door behind her with a huff, but not without seeing the knowing glint behind his eyes. But she chose to ignore it and apparated to the Prewett's house with a nervous tingle in her stomach.
Fabian and Gideon were already waiting for her in front of the house, but when Hermione came closer, there were also two other redheads as well. "Fred? George? What are you doing here?" she asked and looked at them with wide eyes.
"They invited themselves," Fabian said with a crooked grin and greeted her with a hug. "Said they always wanted to try bowling."
Hermione smiled widely at them. "Well, the more the merrier I guess," she said with a shrug and Fred and George send her a winning grin. This definitely wouldn't be a boring evening at all, Hermione mused, while leading her little group of friends to the bowling hall she had picked for the evening. Fred and George were amusing her with stories from their shop, while each of them had taken one of her hands and strolled at her side.
"So you've never tried bowling? Any of you?" she asked into the round and looked behind her to see Fabians and Gideon's reaction.
"Nope," Fred answered and popped the p. "But I guess it can't be too difficult. I'm still not sure what to do with the bowl, but I'm sure you'll explain everything just brilliantly." He grinned at her, but Hermione just rolled her eyed with a grin.
"You don't need a bowl for playing it. You're playing it with a heavy ball and you'll do quite nicely. Playing Quidditch requires some aim and hand-eye coordination and I'm sure you all have loads of it."
"Sure we do," Fred said with a boyish grin and squeezed her hand. "But I can give you a head start, if you like, just to prove that I'm a Gentleman."
Hermione smiled and shook her head without giving him an answer to that. Because somehow she got the impression that he had just been flirting with her and she really didn't know how to react to that.
Even though the evening with her friends was great and there had been lots of laughing and joking, it left Hermione dissatisfied in a very strange way. It was nothing she could put a finger on, but when they were finally all back in front of the Prewett's house, Hermione felt a strange yearning inside.
"Alright, night Hermione," George said and pulled her in a hug, before pressing a quick kiss onto her cheek. "Thanks for teaching us how to not make a complete fool of ourselves."
Hermione looked at him with a chuckle. "It was actually lots of fun. But I'm sure the next time I don't stand a chance to the lot of you."
Fred next to them chuckled and pulled her into a hug himself. "So there is a next time? Great. I was hoping there would be. Just give us a floo call or send an owl or whatever," he said and hugged her tightly, before letting go of her with a happy smile.
"Uncles," the two of them said then and saluted towards Fabian and Gideon. "Thanks for letting us come along because this was loads of fun. Exactly what we needed after such a hard week," George said and clasped Gideon's arm.
"I guess we'll see each other on Sunday for mum's family lunch," Fred added and waved them with a crooked smile. Then the two of them turned around in unison and disapparated with a silent plop.
Hermione looked at Fabian and Gideon with a shy smile. She really didn't want to go, as she had the feeling, that there was almost no time to talk to them this evening. Not that she hadn't enjoyed it anyway, but when she thought about leaving now, an uncomfortable feeling settled in her stomach.
"Do you want to come in for a bit?" Fabian asked her with raised eyebrows and a little smile on his lips, before she even found the courage to ask them herself.
"I'd love to," she replied enthusiastically, strolled towards the two of them and took their hands. "What did you have in mind?"
They beamed at her happily. "Whatever you like is fine for us. Maybe some time on the sofa? There's still a nice bottle of wine somewhere."
"Sounds perfect," Hermione admitted and followed the two of them inside with a happy sigh. The Prewett's living room felt a bit like the Gryffindor common room with its cozy armchairs and sofas and the huge fireplace that was almost taking up half of the wall. Even though the colour scheme was brown and dark violet it felt to her, like being back to Hogwarts again and for a moment she could feel her heart contract in home-sickness. But as her eyes fell on the happy smiles the twins cast in her direction, it was immediately gone again. She didn't know why, but whenever she was close to them now, she felt like home.
Gideon had already made himself comfortable on the sofa and after a short moment of hesitation, Hermione chose to sit right next to him and leave some space for Fabian on her other side. He came into the room just a moment later, with a bottle of wine in one hand, and three glasses in the other. He put everything in front of them on the table before sitting down next to her. And just like that Hermione's heart started beating excitedly again. Her recently recovered memory of them dancing together hadn't really helped to calm her confused feelings towards them. But she didn't want to make things awkward between them again, because she had done enough of that in the past.
"Could I ask you something?" she finally convinced herself to ask and crossed her socked legs in front of her on the sofa.
"Sure," the redhead replied light-heartedly while Fabian filled their glasses on the table.
"How is it to be magical twins? I mean, I do know some things but if one considers the fact that I am friends with two pairs of magical twins, I don't know nearly enough. And I'd really like to change that."
Gideon sent her a kind smile and squeezed her arm encouragingly. "Sounds like a good idea to me. What is it you do know in the first place? We can expand your knowledge by going from there."
Hermione fished herself a glass from the table and after toasting with them, she took a generous sip before saying: "Through George, I learned, that one twin can't live long without the other one. In my old timeline, George managed for about a year, but it was so sad to watch. To be honest, knowing that it will one day happen to any of you kind of freaks me out. Why does it even happen?"
Fabian looked at her with a sad smile, before he put an arm around her shoulder. "Totally understandable, but that's only half of the story. As far as I know, magical twins have magical cores that are linked to each other. In all-day life, those cores support and strengthen each other, which makes us more powerful than the average wizard. It can also lead to an extended life span, which is quite fortunate. But the downside is that if one of us dies, the magical core slowly starts to bleed out and the remaining twin simply weathers away, which really isn't a way one wants to die."
Hermione nodded sadly, while her brain already contemplated the other information she just got from him. "You're going to live longer? That's… amazing."
The redheads grinned cheerfully. "If we aren't murdered in our sleep or decide to take on another Dark Lord, that's pretty safe to say, yeah," Gideon said and winked at her. Hermione smiled back at him, before taking another sip from her glass of wine.
"And we're not planning to do that," Fabian added with a twinkle in his eyes before squeezing her shoulder. "What else do you want to know, sunshine? Because I imagine there is more..."
Hermione smiled shyly. "There definitely is. What about... well how do I call it? Sometimes Fred and George would finish each other's sentences or sometimes the two of you do things totally in synch, like when you danced with me. How can you do that? And what else like that can you do?"
"You remembered the dance?" Gideon asked her and for a moment his gaze was solemn before the smile was back on his face again. "Well, then you've seen the two of us already in action. Basically, magical twins can hear each other's thoughts. Not always, but if we are physically near each other or when strong feelings are involved, then we can send each other thoughts or pictures. Sometimes we can also feel what the other one feels. That's practically how you can move in synch too but it takes a bit of practice."
Hermione nodded with wide excited eyes. "Wow, that's brilliant. Now I can see how the two of you are such excellent duellists."
"...and dancers," Fabian added with a waggle of his eyebrows and Hermione couldn't help but blush.
"That too, yeah." She said, smiled and after a short moment of hesitation she leaned her head against Fabian's arm on her shoulder. She was immediately awarded a happy smile from him before he kissed her hair and Hermione's belly was all in flutters again. But she decided to not overanalyse these feelings for now and just enjoy the evening as it was. For a while, they just set together and sipped their wine and Hermione felt like the alcohol went straight to her head again. But as far as it just made her feel a bit fuzzy and lightheaded she actually didn't mind. It was in fact quite nice not to be her overthinking over-careful self for a while.
"There's something else I was wondering about," she finally said while nipping at her glass. "You once told me, that you prefer to date the same woman. Why is that? Is that a general thing for magical twins?"
For a moment neither Fabian nor Gideon said something to that and Hermione wondered if they just had a silent conversation through their twin bond. But just as Hermione had closed her eyes and leaned more against Fabian's warm body, Gideon looked at her with an unreadable expression and said:
"Most magical twins do date the same woman, but there are also known pairs that found themselves another set of magical twins. Magical twins are a quite rare occurrence though and so it is quite unlikely for two pairs of magical twins falling in love with each other."
Hermione nodded and smiled lazily. She could feel that her eyelids were starting more and more heavy but as the conversation was simply too interesting at the moment and she fought not to fall asleep just now.
"There're actually two reasons for dating the same person I think. The first one is that Fabian and I are so much alike in our core that we simply fall in love with the same person. Of course, there are still differences between the two of us, as you most likely observed, but for the choice of partner this doesn't seem to be of big relevance."
She hummed in agreeance and felt Fabian turn towards her on the sofa so that she could lean her back comfortably against his chest. She did so without even thinking about it and felt his arms closing around her belly and pulling her close. Hermione sighed contently and cuddled closer. "And what's the second reason?" she finally murmured and forced her eyes open again, to look at Gideon with curiosity. He smiled shyly at her.
"Well, it's awkward to date someone your brother is not and when you know that you are projecting your feelings, pictures, and thoughts to him while being with the person you love. As I said, the connection gets stronger when strong feelings are involved. Can you imagine what that means when you're sleeping with someone? The connection is almost impossible to tamper down than, so that the other twins almost certainly feels or sees some of the things, you'd much rather keep private. It's awkward and just feels voyeuristic and somehow wrong."
"I see," Hermione replied while thinking about all this new information in her head. But she realized that she was simply too tired or too drunk to really be able to grasp what it meant. And so instead of saying something else in return, she leaned heavier against the warm and comforting body behind her and closed her eyes with a content sigh. "M tired," she mumbled sleepily and a part of her brain registered that Fabian's head was now resting on the top of hers. "Can I stay over?"
"Anytime Princess," the redhead behind her murmured into her hair. "Should we get you upstairs?"
Hermione shook her head tiredly. "No, 'm comfy here," she mumbled silently and a moment later she already drifted to sleep. If Fabian ever replied something to her, she no longer heard him.