It wasn't until a little past five o'clock that evening that the sound of his twin's shouts stirred Fred from a peaceful, and incredibly satisfied, slumber. It seemed that George had finally acknowledged his brother's extended absence in the lower level of the house, and was clueless –thankfully- as to where he could have gone off to. It was rather unheard of for one of the Weasley twins to be seen without the other for the length of a few hours' time.

With a groan, Fred moved to roll over onto his back and stand from the bed that he currently occupied. It wasn't until a soft, feminine moan was heard to his right that his eyes flew open in surprise and he realized that his arm hadn't been curled around a pillow; yet, actually, a person.

"Crap," Fred breathed out in a whisper after a few long moments of being shocked into silence and a standstill. His mind slowly cleared out of the haze that had previously fogged it, enabling him to figure out his present location.

There, lying across the spare bed set up just for her in Ginny's room was Hermione. Her chocolate-colored curls were sprawled angelically across a white pillow and her head was facing in his direction. She was clearly still asleep. Her dark eyelashes caressed her creamy, pale cheek and her chest rose and fell with every single breath. A content smile rested on her flawless lips and Fred couldn't help but feel thrilled at knowing he had been the one to put it there.

To his displeasure, though, that giddiness didn't last more than two seconds. He suddenly felt like a royal git. His gut clenched with guilt at the thought of taking advantage of Hermione in her current mindset. She was depressed thinking about her ex's death and her broken heart. She wanted to forget about her pain and suffering, and Fred had gladly jumped in to help. How wrong could he get? Sex couldn't make you forget for good, it could only postpone the hurt for later.

Slowly sliding his arm from around Hermione's waist, Fred inched himself over to the edge of the bed and slipped out from beneath the sheets. Realizing that he was now standing in the middle of his little sister's room in all of his glory, Fred hastily searched the floor for his boxers. He sighed in relief upon spotting them and turned away from the bed to tug them on. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned around to find Hermione's big, brown eyes gazing at him curiously.

"Merlin, 'Mione, give a man a fright."

Her smile made him want to grab her close to him again for a repeat of their earlier tumble in the sheets.

"'Give a man a fright?'" She repeated slowly. "Fred, stop being such a girl."

Hermione laughed, warming him to the bone, and sat up in the bed. She brought herself up onto her knees, hauling the white sheet with her to keep around her torso and cover up with. One of her legs was left free of cover and Fred found himself taking in the entire picture with ravenous eyes. She looked like an innocent drop of heaven waiting to be tainted.

"I'm hurt, love. After all of this you still have the nerve to doubt my masculinity?"

Merely raising an eyebrow at his pout, Hermione playfully shrugged it off. Then, her eyes leisurely roamed over his appearance. He was clad in only his boxers and his chest was perfectly sculpted from his many years of playing Beater on his house Quidditch team and in the many games his brothers had started up in the backyard. Another shout from George, however, tore her gaze away from the staggeringly perfect sight before her and toward the door. Her eyes widened as Fred whipped around, as well, as if expecting his brother to bound in at any moment.

"I should go."

"Yes, you should."

Hermione bit her lower lip and met his gaze nervously. So much had changed already. Was Fred really who she had thought him to be just a few hours earlier? Or was there more to him than what met the eye? He'd been . . . wonderful, and she wasn't really sure whether or not she wanted him to leave at all. Yet, she wasn't about to tell him that she wanted to ravish him all over again. How embarrassing.

Fred nodded silently to himself before reaching for the pile of his clothes and quickly throwing them on. He didn't know what to make out of all of this. He could tell that Hermione didn't know either, though. So it had to be good that they were both feeling similarly as of now, right? Especially since they didn't quite have the time to figure it all out now, being as the sound of George's loud footsteps was making its way up the stairs to their floor.

"Fred! Where are you, mate?"

Fred made his way to the door, looking backwards over his shoulder to find Hermione still staring at him in slight confusion as if she was trying to think of what to do or to just comprehend what was happening. Before he could think it through, he had suddenly turned around mid-step, strode over to her, and fused his lips to hers. Her muffled gasp made him move to pull back, but her hand sliding up to rest at the back of his neck a moment later spurred him on. All doubt was pushed to the back of his mind as he kissed her.

Her surprise was painted across her face when they finally broke away and he was fairly certain his face sported a similar look.

"We'll talk about this later, yeah?" He questioned, tucking a stray curl behind her ear as he reached up to softly caress her cheek.

"Mhmm," was all Hermione managed to get out as she looked at him in a complete daze.

Fred smirked for a second and took a mental picture of her flustered appearance before practically sprinting to the door and out of the room. He had just managed to get the door shut when George banged right into him while walking down the hall. Fred braced himself against the wall so that he wouldn't fall backwards onto his arse. George just stood there, completely balanced and unfazed, as if they hadn't actually collided at all. His eyes flashed with curiosity.

"What the hell are you doing here?" George asked, cocking an eyebrow and scrutinizing his twin through narrowed eyes. "You seem . . . satisfied."

"W-what?" Fred choked out, his eyes bulging out of their sockets as he stared at his brother.

"I'm your twin, Fred. I'm a specialist at reading you. You're like an open book to me," George said with a shrug, crossing his arms over his chest and casting Fred's surprise aside with a roll of his eyes.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Fred asked, pushing off of the wall he had been leaning backwards against and heading away from George and in the direction of the room which they had been sharing for their entire life and would continue to share for the remainder of their stay back at home.

Fred, George, Ginny and Ron had all decided to spend the summer back at the Burrow with their mum and dad. Percy had been killed by a Death Eater at war. Bill was back at his own house living alone having recently dumped his ex-fiancé, Fleur. He lived in a small flat in Diagon Alley. And Charlie; well, Charlie was in Romania . . . as always.

Fred and George, like Bill, had a flat in Diagon Alley. Theirs was above their joke shop. They'd actually become pretty damn successful over the years. They brought in enough money for them to be able to retire at an early age. They'd decided to close for about a month to have much needed family time. It wasn't as if they needed to keep the shop open in order to get by.

George sighed and followed after Fred, both taking the next set of stairs two at a time.

"You look thoroughly shagged, Fred," he said, quickening his steps as his twin quickened his.

Fred spun around to face him at the top of the stairs, his face set in a determined scowl. "You're mad," he said, "You haven't any idea what you're talking about."

Just then, the door at the bottom of the stairs was thrown open and Hermione exited it. It seemed like she was heading to the bathroom across the hall, clad in only the sheet that she'd been clutching tightly to her chest when Fred had left her. She held it loosely against her so that neither of the twins even had to guess whether or not she was wearing clothes beneath it. Fred had to remind himself to breath as he took in her beauty for the second time in the last few minutes.

George's eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. How had he not put the pieces together when Fred had stepped out of that room to begin with? Ginny was downstairs and Hermione had ran off over three hours ago. Fred must have disappeared soon after. Merlin.

"Hermione!" George shouted, trotting back down the steps that they had just climbed.

Hermione gasped as she spun around, clutching the sheet tighter against her chest in an effort to hide as much skin as possible away from his eyes. She hadn't really thought that she would run into anyone on the short trip to the bathroom just across the narrow hallway.

"George," she stated in return by way of greeting, her voice sounding more confident than she really felt under his knowing gaze.

George couldn't resist the smirk that spread across his face at the thought of the trouble his brother was in for when they got a moment alone together. "What have you been doing?" George asked, trying to school his expression into a look of concern. "You disappeared a few hours ago. Actually, not long before a certain reflection of mine did as well."

Fred actually felt a blush rising to his cheeks as he cautiously made his way down the stairs toward them. Leave it to George to try to embarrass them as much as possible. He knew his brother would tear him a new one once they got a second alone.

Hermione looked toward the stairs when a step creaked under Fred's weight. She bit her lip anxiously when her eyes met his for a second. Taking a deep breath, she looked back at George as innocently as possible.

"Oh, I haven't done anything," she answered, tilting her head to the side in mock confusion.

"Oh! Well, maybe someone then?" George asked abruptly, looking over his shoulder at Fred and then back to Hermione. His pointed glance was enough to ensure Hermione that he knew everything. He chuckled when Hermione's face began to turn the most delightful shade of red. "That's what I thought."

"George, please," Fred said, moving down the remaining steps toward them with a pleading expression. He had never begged anyone for anything before. His pride never had allowed such a thing. However, he was positive that he would get down on his knees and beg his brother right now if he had to. "Keep your mouth shut."

George looked at Hermione, noticing she was begging him with her eyes as well. He didn't approve of this. No, not at all. His twin had just had sex with their younger brother's love interest after she had blurted out a long treacherous tale about her ex-boyfriend's death. There was no way in hell that he would ever be alright with such a thing.

"Of course, I love secrets!" he exclaimed jovially, pushing aside the gut feeling that it wasn't right to go along with this. He leaned into Hermione and lowered his voice, "Want to have a sleep over later? We can share lots of secrets."

"George!" Hermione laughed in fake appall.

Fred glared at his brother.

"Stop flirting with her."

"Oh! Merlin, I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was against the rules to flirt. It seems we are only allowed to shag her silly. No flirting. Okay, I can abide by that," George said, smiling teasingly before stepping away after noticing Fred was still in protection-mode. "I'll be upstairs."

"I'm coming. Hold on," Fred said before he turned and smiled a little apologetically at Hermione. He allowed himself one last glance over her figure, loving that she had relaxed her hold on the sheet a little bit since George was no longer the one standing directly in front of her. "I'll see you in a bit, yeah?"

When she nodded slightly he bent down to press a chaste kiss to her forehead before running back up the stairs after George.

Hermione just stood there for a moment after he had left and shook her head before rushing into the bathroom for a shower. The last thing she needed was for someone else to happen upon her in such a little amount of cover, as if she wasn't already embarrassed enough. What a day.

The moment Fred stepped into his bedroom upstairs, a certain somebody tackled him to the ground with a sharp blow to his chest.

"You're a complete and total idiot!" George exclaimed while shoving him hard in his shoulder as Fred attempted to free himself from the vice-like grip. "You slept with her! How screwed up can you get?!"

Fred squirmed, trying without hope to get back up to his feet. It wasn't often that they fought, but the few times that they did had turned decently nasty. A fact that Fred remained in full when George threw a punch square toward his face.

"C'mon, George, get off! It's not like I did it against her will! She basically asked me to!" Fred yelled, blinking his eyes in an effort to fight through the pain of his throbbing nose.

"She asked you to?" George repeated in disbelief. "Pardon me, but I really doubt that!"

"Hermione wanted to get her ex's death off of her mind. I helped her!" Fred explained, finally succeeding in pushing George away from himself with a hard shove.

George stared at his twin in incredulity. "Helped her? You helped her by sleeping with her? And earlier you said I'm mad!"

Fred sighed and leaped to his feet. It sounded worse when he heard someone else say it. "Okay, so you're telling me that if you got an invitation to shag Hermione, you wouldn't?"

"Exactly! I wouldn't put her in a position where she sure as hell would regret something. You should have told her no! It's a possibility, Fred. To just say no!"

"Not when she's looking at you with those eyes of hers! She's bloody gorgeous and damned if I didn't want anything more than to have her the moment she arrived," Fred said, pacing back and forth and waving his arms like a mad-man as he explained himself. George plopped down on his bed in frustration. The scene would have been comical if they both weren't so aggravated.

"Merlin, Fred. What are you both going to do now, even in the slim possibility that she doesn't regret it? What about Ron? He's been in love with her for years. And Harry. Even he has a tad of a thing for her."

"So? It's her choice, not theirs," Fred said, finally falling into a lounge chair in exhaustion. He knew that the argument was weak. Sure, Hermione had wanted to sleep with him. But, he should have had the strength to say no. "Maybe we can pretend it didn't happen."

"Maybe," George nodded in slight agreement, "Hermione knows you're not the boyfriend type. And she's not the no-strings-attached type. I mean Gods, she has a son."

Fred glanced up from where he was staring at a wall in surprise. "Merlin, I feel like a total arse. I completely forgot about James."

"How could you forget about the thing we were having a deep conversation about only ten minutes before you and Hermione went at it?" George asked, staring at Fred in disbelief. "You really are dim. It amazes me sometimes."

"It's a gift."

"More like a curse."

"I wasn't thinking about much besides the fastest way to get her bra unclasped, mate," Fred said, chuckling somewhat nervously as his brother stuck his tongue out in disgust. "Very mature."

"I'd like to think so. Anyways, we'd better head downstairs. You should probably wipe that look off your face, Fred. Before Ron sees."

Fred stood up from his seat and turned to face George in confusion.

"What look?"

"The look that says, 'Hey, Ronnie, you know that gorgeous witch you've been lusting after since Hogwarts? Yeah, well I've just banged her. She's a great sha-'"

George was cut off by a large cauldron –which had been used for the many potions that went into each new invention while they were growing up- that went flying at his face. Fred laughed as George ducked just in time but still managed to slam his head on a dresser, trip over a box of various candies, and fall head-first onto the floor.

"Yeah, I'll meet you downstairs, mate," Fred smiled, tipping a pretend hat toward his twin.

George simply groaned that he understood.

AN: So, what did you think? Be sure to review!