This chapter is dedicated to wolvesdrinktea. Congratulations on getting married! I wish you and your new husband all the best :)
And to everyone else - get excited! By the time I post the next chapter, I will have gone on my first date in over 5 years! I'm pretty stoked :D

Fred walked quietly into George's room and gently woke his brother, motioning for him to be quiet and follow him. He silently unlocked the door to Hermione's safe room and they snuck in, each climbing onto the bed on either side of her. She was laying on her stomach, head turned to the side, so they both placed a hand on the small of her back and then leaned in to wake her simultaneously. "Good moooooorning, Granger!" they shouted, startling her awake.

"Yahhh!" she shouted. Upon opening her eyes and seeing Fred's face inches from her own, she jerked backwards to put some space between them and ended up launching herself into George, who subsequently fell off the bed. "Fred! George! Was that really necessary?"

"I think it was, Granger," Fred replied with a cheeky grin.

"Happy birthday," George grumbled from the floor. "Care to help me up?"

She turned around and leaned over the side of the bed, spotting George lying on the cold, hard floor. Reaching a hand down to him, she helped pull him up, and he immediately pounced on top of her.

"I regret help- GEORGE! GEORGE WEASLEY!" she shouted, laughing as he began tickling her. "You stop that right now! I'll wet the bed if you don't cut it out; you wouldn't want that, would you?"

He quickly rolled off of her with an exclamation of "ewwww," and looked over at his twin. "Freddy, did you know Granger was this gross?"

"It's what makes her so endearing, brother. Besides, it's her birthday. You can't call her names today!"

George grumbled in agreement. "Speaking of birthdays, you should come out to the living room. There may or may not be a surprise out there for you."

"A surprise?" Hermione asked, eagerly sitting up in bed. "I'm not a fan of surprises, but I'll make an exception this one time. Is it a birthday present?"

Fred nodded, and pushed her gently to help her get up from the bed. "C'mon, get up, you need to check out your surprise before you can eat the breakfast I made you; you don't want it to get cold, do you?"

She climbed out of the bed and followed the twins into the living room, where she discovered a new addition to the room – a television. "Boys! A telly? This is brilliant, thank you!" She hugged them both and then got closer to the TV to see what features it had. "Ooh, a built-in VCR...I'll have to figure out how to acquire some Monty Python, you guys would love that."

"What's a Monty Python?" Fred asked, a confused expression on his face.

"Is it some sort of show about snakes or something?" George added.

Hermione giggled. "No, it has nothing to do with snakes. It's a comedy troupe that I think you two will find caters directly to your comedic interests. I can't wait to see how you react to the horse and coconuts routine!"

"Horse and coconuts, you say? I think this sounds like something I can watch," George stated.

Hermione grinned, and turned back to Fred. "So what's this I hear about breakfast?"

-oOo-

Over the next few weeks, the trio settled into a routine. Hermione would make breakfast, then she'd spend the day reading and doing some work on development while the twins ran the shop. They'd break for lunch, usually made by Hermione again, and then one of the boys would make dinner after the shop closed at the end of the day. Hermione would help whichever twin didn't make dinner that night clean up from the meal, and then all three would sit down at the table and go over Hermione's progress on the inventions for the day. Once she'd reported everything she'd done, they'd give her some feedback, and then Hermione would curl up on the couch between the twins as they all watched some television for a little while before bed.

On one particular Tuesday, Hermione was sitting at the kitchen table doing the Quibbler's crossword puzzle while Fred cooked dinner.

"I went out into muggle London today, and happened to find something I thought you might like," George announced, strolling into the kitchen. Fred looked up from the pan he was making their stir-fry in and locked eyes with his brother.

After a quick, silent communication, he grinned. "Brilliant!"

"What's brilliant?" Hermione asked. "What did you find?"

George handed her a nondescript, rectangular brown package, which she eagerly tore open. "The Life of Brian!" she shouted, jumping out of her seat and hugging George. "How did you know where to find this? And The Holy Grail, too? George, this is brilliant!"

He grinned widely and hugged her back. "I noticed a video store as I walked past it, by chance, so I figured I'd go in and see if they had any Monty Python for you. I asked the salesman, and he brought me a few. Those were the ones that looked the most entertaining, based on the pictures on the cover."

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, pulling back from the hug and going to show Fred her new movies.

"Ooh, those do look fun," he replied, turning back to the stove to continue making dinner.

"We're watching one of these after dinner, you two don't have a choice. Tweaking the Decoy Detonators can wait a day, they're not going anywhere," Hermione declared, shuffling around to set the table. George took the videos and placed them on the table next to the television, before going to hang his coat and scarf on the rack by the door.

"Sounds good to me, I think we deserve a break after all the hard work we've been doing. We've invented more products in the past month with you than we made in our entire 6th year at Hogwarts, I think," George replied. "Can I pick? I'd really like to see the Holy Grail."

Hermione nodded as she laid out the forks. "That one's my favourite, I can't say no to it!"

"Dinner's ready!" Fred announced, and carried the pan over to the table to dish out the meal onto each of their plates.

Once they had all been served, and were sitting down together, Hermione took a bite and groaned. "Fred, this is amazing! I vote that you cook every night."

"Oi!" George shouted indignantly. "What's wrong with my cooking, woman?"

Hermione giggled. "Nothing, George. Shepherd's pie is exactly what I want to eat three to four times a week." George huffed, and Hermione winked at him, reaching over to pat his hand. "You know I'm kidding, Georgie. Your cooking is just fine. I just happen to find tonight's dinner particularly delicious."

"Sure, sure," he replied, grumbling. "I see who the favourite twin is."

Hermione scooted her chair over to George's side of the table and kissed him on the cheek while giving him a side-hug. "Quit whining, George, I love you both equally. Besides, Fred's not the one who brought me Monty Python tonight..."

He beamed at her, and then stuck his tongue out at Fred, blowing him a raspberry. Fred flung a potato at him in response.

Hermione just sighed and rested her chin in her hand. "What am I going to do with the two of you?"

Posted: November 2011
Word Count: 1,259