I hope everyone had a nice holiday season, and that 2012 has started off well for you.

"Boys," Hermione started as she walked into the lab, "do you realize what time it is?"

"Hmm?" Fred asked, not looking up.

"It's 8pm. Come on upstairs, I've made you two some dinner."

"Eight? Really?" George asked, his head raising up to look at the clock on the wall. "Wow, didn't realize it had gotten so late. We can finish this tomorrow, Freddy."

Fred just nodded, and shuffled the papers they were working on into a pile. He put them away in the drawer of the work table, and the two boys followed Hermione up the stairs.

Dinner was a quiet, slightly awkward affair. Both of the twins kept trying to start a conversation with Hermione, only to get one-word answers. Eventually, Fred put down his fork with a clang, and turned to his flatmate. "Hermione, is there something wrong?"

She shook her head, and went back to picking at her food.

"Do you maybe have something you'd like to talk to us about? You know we're all-ears, and we won't judge you," George suggested.

She let out an audible sigh, and finally looked up from her plate. "I suppose it might be time to tell you two about the mission...let's just clean up from dinner first, and then we'll go talk about it in the sitting room."

A few minutes later, Hermione sat poised on the edge of her seat on the couch next to George, with Fred facing them from the nearby love seat. "Hermione?" Fred asked. "What is this mission you need to tell us about? Does it have something to do with where Ron and Harry are?"

Hermione just nodded, not looking away from the spot on the wall she seemed to be staring at. After a few more minutes of silence, George spoke.

"Alright, Mione, let's make this a little less stressful, yeah?" he said as he leaned forward and took hold of her shoulders. He pulled her back into the middle of the couch as he scooted himself back as well, and settled her into his side, wrapping his arm around her shoulder in a comforting manner. "Come on, love, you can talk to us," he said quietly, leaning his head closer to hers and gently turning her face to look at him.

At this gentle, caring gesture, she relaxed into his arms and closed her eyes with a sigh. A moment later, with her eyes still closed, she began to speak. "Last year, Harry started taking special lessons with Dumbledore..." She launched into an explanation of everything Harry learned from their late headmaster, and the planning they did for their horcrux hunt. She went into detail about the diary, the ring, and then the locket, and then finally cleared up the bit about RAB for them – not that she knew who he actually was.

The twins sat silently as she spoke, taking it all in. George was softly rubbing up and down Hermione's arm in a comforting way to show her that they were listening, and help her to feel more confident about opening up to them. When she finally finished relaying all the information, Fred let out a big sigh. "Blimey," he said, leaning back into the couch from the upright, rigid position he had been in while listening. "I can't believe Dumbledore expected you three to take all that on! That's some heavy stuff. How much of this does the Order know about?"

"Nothing," she replied. "He meant for us to keep it a secret to prevent information from falling into the wrong hands. Technically, I'm not even supposed to be telling you two..."

"Well, you know we won't tell anyone, love," George said, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "Do you feel better having told someone, though?"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, actually, I do," she replied. "Thanks, guys."

"Well, I don't mean to just leave you like this, but I'm supposed to be going over to Angie's to have coffee with her parents tonight...are you going to be alright if I leave, Hermione?"

"Yeah, I think I'll be okay," she replied, looking over at him with a half-smile. "Thanks, go see your girlfriend. And please tell her I said hi."

"Will do," he said, clapping his hands onto his knees and using the position to push himself up and off the couch. "Georgie, keep an eye on her for me, will ya?"

"You didn't even have to ask, brother," he replied, looking up at Fred with a smile. "She's in good hands," he added, patting her lightly on the shoulder.

"Alright, I'll see you two later. Have a good night."

"Goodbye, Fred," Hermione and George chimed together, and watched as Fred tossed some floo powder into the fireplace and disappeared.

-oOo-

A few hours later, George woke up with a start when he heard yelling coming from the direction of his closet. Grabbing his wand up off the bedside table, he climbed out of bed and quickly made his way to the entrance of Hermione's safe room. Opening the door, he spotted the girl thrashing around in her bed with a pained expression on her face. "No, not them. Leave them alone! RON! HARRY! NO!"

"Hermione!" he hissed, moving over to her bed and gently shaking her. She didn't react to his actions at all, so he decided to try a different tactic. He crawled on top of her and pinned her to the bed with his legs and hands, to still her thrashing, and leaned his head down to whisper in her ear. "Hermione, calm down. Breathe, love, it's just a dream. I'm right here, you're safe, please wake up," he started chanting. "Come on, Hermione, open your eyes for me."

Finally, her head stopped jerking back and forth, and she slowly opened her eyes. "George?" she whispered. "Why are you on top of me?"

George sighed in relief, then chuckled as he removed himself from atop her body. "I had to pin you down to stop you from thrashing around so much. You must have been having one hell of a nightmare; are you alright?"

Hermione nodded slightly. "I think I am." At this, George started to remove himself from the bed to go back to his own, but was stopped by Hermione's hand grabbing his wrist. "George...stay...please," she whispered, her voice pleading. "I don't want to be alone after a dream like that."

George seemed to wage a short internal battle, but nodded and climbed back onto the bed beside her. Pulling back the sheets, he slipped in under the covers alongside Hermione, and pulled the bed covers up to his chest. Trying to hide the nervousness in his eyes, he looked at the girl lying next to him and asked, "feel better now?"

Hermione looked back at him and shook her head. Then, in a move that surprised him, she scooted herself up against him and wrapped an arm across his torso. "Now I do," she replied, humming contentedly as she snuggled her face into his side.

Pleasantly surprised, George smiled to himself and drew an arm up around her back. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead before whispering, "Goodnight, Hermione. Sweet dreams."

"Mmm," she responded quietly, "sweet dreams, George."

-oOo-

Fred came home to a quiet apartment the next morning, and went to go wake his brother for work. When he got into his room, however, he discovered an empty bed. Curious, he looked to Hermione's secret door, intending to go in and wake her to see if she knew where George was, but found the door already open. He quietly made his way into the safe room, where he found not only Hermione, but his twin in the bed as well. The girl was wrapped around his brother's side, and both were sleeping so peacefully that he couldn't bring himself to actually wake them. Smiling to himself, he walked out of the room and set about to making some breakfast.

A few minutes later, Hermione stirred and went to stretch, forgetting that she wasn't alone in the bed – which resulted in her accidentally hitting George in the face. "Ouch! What the bloody hell was that for, Granger?" he cried, sitting up and putting his hand up to his head.

"George! I'm so sorry! Wait...what are you doing in my bed?"

"Do you not remember having a nightmare last night?" he replied. Upon seeing her shake her head, he continued. "Well, I heard you yelling and thrashing about through the wall last night, and came in to wake you up from your nightmare. Once you were awake and I went to go back to my own bed, you asked me to stay with you. You said you didn't want to be alone after the dream you had."

She blushed, and ducked her head a bit. "Well, thank you, then, George, for sacrificing your sleep to help me feel safer."

"It was no problem, Hermione. And it didn't sacrifice my sleep at all; quite the opposite, actually. I slept better last night than I have in a really long time." Upon finishing that statement and realizing what he had just said, he blushed all the way to the tips of his ears. Hermione couldn't help but smile warmly at his confession, and the adorable face he made when he was embarrassed.

Suddenly, George sat bolt upright in the bed and sniffed the air. "Bacon. I smell bacon!" He jumped out of the bed and bolted towards the door, heading in the direction of the delicious smell. Pausing at the entrance to his bedroom, he turned around and looked at Hermione. "Come on, Granger! Don't you want to steal some bacon from Fred with me?"

She grinned and hopped out of bed, then followed him out into the kitchen.

-oOo-

"Wow, Fred, that was a delicious breakfast, thank you! I think I'm going to go take a shower before I get started on my development for the day." Getting up and making her way over to his chair, she smiled at Fred and hugged him from above, and then headed into the bathroom between the bedrooms.

As soon as he heard the door shut and the shower turn on, he turned to his brother. Rotating his teacup in his hands, he gave him a long look before speaking. "You looked awful cosy in Hermione's bed this morning."

George's eyes widened and he spluttered a bit. "You saw that?"

Fred nodded. "Yeah. You both looked so peaceful that I couldn't bear to disturb you." George blushed. "Is there something you're not telling me, Georgie?"

"No, no, of course not. She had a nightmare, so I went in to wake her up. As I went to leave, she asked me to stay, because she didn't want to be alone after the dream she had."

"Are you sure that's all, George? It wouldn't be a crime if there was more to the story..."

George fiddled with the rim of his teacup, and started speaking without looking back up at his brother. "Well...I'll admit, I slept better last night than I have in a really long time."

A small smile grew on Fred's face. "You think it has something to do with the fact that you slept beside Granger?"

George nodded timidly.

"Well, brother," Fred started, standing up from his chair at the table and moving to clear the breakfast dishes. "I think you might just have feelings for our little bookworm." He walked back over to his brother after placing his dishes in the sink and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's not a bad thing, Georgie. She's a great bird. Don't be too hard on yourself; the heart wants what the heart wants."

George looked up at his twin and grinned. "Forge, you're turning into a little nancy boy on me. What's Angie done to you?"

Fred just shook his head and laughed lightly. "You'll understand one day, Gred, Merlin-willing. Just don't break her heart, yeah?"

George nodded slightly and swirled the tea in his cup around, watching the liquid spiral as his brother left him to go down to the shop. He continued to sit there in silence for another ten minutes or so, lost in his thoughts, until Hermione came back into the kitchen.

"Is everything alright, George?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine, Hermione. Just thinking. No need to worry." Standing up, he placed his teacup in the sink and started towards the stairs. "Let's go work on those flowers for Fred, yeah? Hopefully, we can surprise him by finishing them by the end of the day."

She nodded, but didn't move to follow him. She just stood there and stared after him for a moment, curious to know what was going on inside his head. Shaking her head, she sighed, and then followed him down the stairs to the lab.

Posted: 9 January 2012
Word Count: 2,226