Disclaimer:I don't own Harry Potter and all that jazz. Come on, you should know this by now people.
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Fred slept in late, as was usual for him over summer, and the sun was already visible over the hilltops when George finally woke him.
"I think Mum'll be wanting us down for breakfast soon," George said as he gave Fred a little shake. "It's almost seven."
George sat down on the end of his brother's bed and watched him roll over, stretching and yawning. "Mmmm, seven, already?" Fred asked. He sat up and looked at his sibling.
"Have a good night?" George asked with a smile, knowing how gleeful Fred had been when he'd finally fallen asleep last night. They'd stayed up late talking-conversation being mostly one-sided on Fred's part-until Fred's eyes had finally closed from sheer exhaustion. But George hadn't minded. He was happy that his brother was finally back in good spirits.
"Yeah," Fred replied with a shy smile. "It was, great, actually. But I should think you would know that."
"Never hurts to ask. Who knows, you could have some kind of nightmare."
"Yeah, like what?"
"Like what if Ickle-Ronnikins has already broken in your little lover," George said with mock concern.
"Wh-what?! What the hell did you just say?!"
"I mean, we don't know what does on behind that door when they close it at night. And if Harry's known about his own sexual tendencies, they may have..." Fred didn't allow George to finish his sentence, as he threw a pillow at his head. George dodged in time and came back unharmed.
"Now why would you do that," he asked chuckling. "I was only answering a question."
"Oh, come off it!" Fred's face was flushed with embarrassment and shock, and George could see that he was a little worried.
"You know I was only joking. I really don't think Ron would be into anything like that. Remember last year when he saw Lee holding hands with Fitzgerold? He freaked."
Fred thought back to last year, and recalled his younger brother's reaction to Lee's display. "Yeah, he did." Fred relaxed, thinking how stupid he was to have thought that there could have been any merit to what George had suggested. It was just that when George had suggested that Harry had been with anyone else⦠To the extent of Fred's knowledge, Harry had only ever had one relationship; the one he had had last year with Cho. And according to not only Ron and Hermione, but Harry himself, it hadn't been much.
"Wanker," Fred smiled, throwing a pillow at his brother.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to get myself some breakfast." With that, George got up from the bed and walked over to the dresser, pulling his shirt off along the way. Fred pulled himself up and joined his brother, and in five minutes they were making their way down the winding staircase to join the rest of the family in the kitchen.
Mr. Weasley was walking through the door just as Fred and George were taking their seats at the table. He greeted them all with a somber face and sat down, sandwiching himself between Ginny and Ron. The family looked at the grim expression on his face with concern, but no one said anything. If their father wanted to talk about it, he would bring it up himself.
"So, how's the homework coming kids," he asked with as good a smile as he could muster. They all managed to mumble something to the extent of 'okay' and began the meal in as relaxed a setting as the meager conversation would allow.
It was another hot and lazy day, and prompted by Mr. Weasley's question, everyone decided it would be best to work on the assignments they had been given over the summer. After retrieving books, quills, parchment, and ink from their trunks upstairs, everyone found a spot out under the shade of some benevolent bush or tree to begin the odious task.
"Harry, where'd you get that quill," Ron questioned when he saw Harry pull out the present he had received the previous night. "I've never seen you use it before."
"Um," Harry stalled, not knowing whether or not he should tell Ron where the quill had come from. Harry's eyes darted over to Fred, who had snapped to attention once he had heard Ron ask the question and was now looking at Harry, panic in his eyes. He hadn't thought that something like this would have come up so soon, and before he was even sure of what he had with Harry. Fred didn't know what to say, though he doubted whether he could have actually gotten anything past the lump that had formed in his throat.
Harry, seeing the desperate look on Fred's face that even he wasn't aware of, decided that it wasn't the best time to be truthful. It'd be nice to know what his relationship with Fred was before he tried to explain it to anyone else.
"I bought it last year," Harry lied with as much indifference as he could muster.
"Oh. Then, why were you using that ratty old quill the other week when you had this one?" Ron always picked the most inconvenient times to be observant. George just shook his head, an innocent spectator with a small smile playing on his lips.
"I forgot that I'd even bought it and found it again today when I was digging around for my Potions Book," Harry said with a shrug.
"Sounds like something I would do," Ron chuckled, then turned to his work.
Harry gave Fred a sidelong glance, and he grinned at the obvious relief that was present on the redhead's face. He giggled and started on his own work, thinking how cute someone could look when worry was lifted from their shoulders.
Fred gave a sigh of relief, and blushing, smiled back at Harry. For all the lying he'd done over the years, Fred wasn't sure that he'd have been able to handle that, and he was in awe of Harry for it. Just one more thing to love about him.
George gave no outward sign of feelings, but inwardly, he felt relief for his brother and applauded Harry for his duplicitous behavior. To George, Harry had seemed rather, engaging, wile spinning the falsehood. Hmmm, he thought.
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August drew on, bringing with it seemingly endless rain that kept everyone inside. In such close quarters, it was hard for Fred and Harry to be alone, but they made sure take advantage of any situation that presented itself. Most often, they met at night, Harry coming into Fred and George's room after Ron had fallen asleep. It wasn't exactly solitude, as George usually stayed with them, but that was at their own decision. He was, after all, the only one who knew about their relationship.
Their nights were typically filled with talk, covering both common and personal topics. George was always welcome to join in, and he put in his own two cents at least once a night, sometimes holding as much of the conversation as the other two. They shared embraces and light kisses, not embarrassed at all in front of their third wheel. He, in turn, didn't mind either, and sometimes watched a little too closely as his brother locked lips with the bespectacled boy. But George kept this private.
On the morning of the twentieth, a number of owls bombarded the kitchen window with letters from Hogwarts. Mrs. Weasley handed everyone their respective letter, and listened as they recited the books that they would need from the lists.
"Well, what about you two," Mrs. Weasley questioned Fred and George.
"You don't have to buy us anything, Mum," George replied. "All the books here are already upstairs."
"Well, that's a relief, though having you both go back to school for an eighth year is not something I'm proud of." The twins exchanged glances. "And you shouldn't be proud of it either!"
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Thank you to MooneyAndPadfoot4eva for reviewing!
