"Oh, brill!" George's voice was as loud and as cheerful as usual as he strode across the floor of the shop to greet Hermione as she entered the door, setting off another round of holiday songs in the process. "You are JUST the witch I need! Happy Christmas Eve, love!"
"You know we're all going over to The Burrow soon, George?" Hermione asked. "Your mum's got the eggnog and mulled wine on. Bill, Fleur and Victoire are there already, and Charlie's flooing over at four. We thought the two of you might want to stay open for a bit longer, but I told Ron and Harry that I would pop in to let you know anyway. They're in the pub waiting."
"Actually, Fred and I have offered Verity and the others double pay to work a bit later, and they're all happy to have the extra galleons, so he and I are free agents. We'll come with you now if you give me two minutes of your muggle expertise before we go?"
Hermione followed George to the main counter, where her favourite Weasley man was in the middle of magically wrapping a pile of gifts for a witch who had a small set of twins of her own as well as an older child. She was looking a bit harassed to still be out in the Diagon Alley crowds. "If you write down your address, love," Fred was saying to the woman, "I'll get Verity to floo the gifts over so you don't have to carry them. And if we're still open when you're done then you're welcome to come back and use our floo to get home; it's no trouble." Hermione's heart warmed at his thoughtfulness.
Once he had finished helping the customer, Fred turned to Hermione with a blinding grin and his arms held out wide. She stepped into them and, as usual, felt the heady combination of the love and comfort that she experienced when she received a Weasley hug from any of his family mixed with the internal fireworks that went off, wholly unbidden, any time this particular Weasley brother pressed her face to his rather muscular, warm chest. They exchanged greetings and, still enjoying the security of his arms, Hermione leaned back to meet his eyes and ask how his day had been.
"So busy … I'm looking forward to sitting down with a big glass of mum's eggnog!" he confessed. "But we've done amazingly well financially, so I'm not complaining."
Before she could reply, Hermione heard George's loud voice again. He had wandered off and was now returning to the counter with Verity in tow. "Put him down, Hermione, you don't know where he's been!" She blushed a little, and stepped out of Fred's embrace to greet and hug Verity in the hope of hiding her response to having been caught enjoying her time in Fred's arms.
"Go on boss, you're off the clock now." Verity pointed her wand at the till, keying it to her magical signature and signing Fred off.
"Woooo, Merry Christmas to me!" Fred's voice was just as loud as George's and he gave Verity a bow of thanks and an envelope from the pocket of his robes before turning to his brother. "Are we all off to mum and dad's then? Or having a quick drink in the pub first?"
"In a minute," said George, casually. "I need Hermione's help with one thing before we leave. In fact, you can help too, Freddie, seeing as you're here." He showed them the brightly coloured object that he was holding in his hand. "I've been working on smaller Christmas crackers for the kids, for Christmas dinner tomorrow, but I want to test the spring length first. Here, pull for me, you two, would you…"
Without giving either of them time to think, George held the middle of the cracker and dropped it slightly, making Fred and Hermione instinctively reach for an end of the cracker.
"Ready? One, two, three, go…" George was as smooth as silk, and neither of them had time to get suspicious. But as soon as they heard the pop and saw the cascade of glittery sparks jump into the air along with the usual colourful spring that was a traditional element of the twins' crackers, Hermione and Fred realised that something was different. A silver chain had shot out from the inside of the cracker and fastened itself around each of their right wrists, binding them to each other.
Hermione's eyes widened as the action brought an old memory to mind, but she forgot about that as George used the element of surprise and a quick, quiet expelliarmus to take each of their wands, sliding them together into his robes.
But that wasn't all. As with all good muggle crackers, there was a gift, a tiny scroll of paper and a paper hat. No, Hermione realised as she watched the rest of the cracker's contents magically distribute themselves according to George's will, two paper hats.
Orange, of course.
One of them settled itself on each of her and Fred's heads and Hermione gasped to see that her hair immediately turned a bright shade of Slytherin green. Fred's hat didn't change his hair colour though, and Hermione stared at it for a second, wondering what it would do instead. Before she could come up with a theory, however, the gift – a small black box with a single red button on – spiralled in the air and then fell into Fred's left hand as the scroll of rolled up paper wafted into her own.
"George?" She found her words before Fred did. The younger twin grinned.
"Merry Christmas, my two favourite people! Enjoy your Christmas Eve gift!"
Fred began to laugh. "What're you playing at, Georgie?!"
George clapped his brother on the back. "You'll figure it out, mate. And I've made sure you won't miss out on the eggnog!"
Fred looked confused. "Miss out? But we're all about to go to mum's, right?"
"Weeeeell, kind of…" George looked at his watch and then took a step back, waving. "You two have a lovely time, and I'll see you later. Well, unless you get a better offer," he cackled with a wink at his brother. "Oh and you might want to hold onto your gifts carefully. The cracker's a portkey and," he stepped back and looked at the clock above the counter, "three, two, one … love you both, byeeee…"