Sorry for the long wait! My laptop was broken and when I got it back, it was hard for me to start getting in to the swing of writing again. Damn writer's block! I hope you enjoy this chapter and please R&R! I love hearing what you've got to say!
~Bethany

Fred placed a small, playful kiss on Hermione's lips before pouting and putting on a fake sniff.
'Don't go,' he cried through fake tears, kissing her again. 'Please,' another kiss. 'Pretty please?'

A few awkward eyes were trying not to stare at them too much in the common room, but George was sat next to his brother, eye rolling, staring and making gagging noises. The three of them had a blanket draped across their laps, keeping out some of the cold. It had gotten colder again in the last few days, Hermione was starting to wonder why the weather had to be so bipolar, then she remembered she lived in London and attended school in Scotland, neither places were exactly renowned for their fantastic weather patterns.

Hermione wiped away his fake tears and laughed.
'I see you've learned how to cry on queue.'

He grinned and put his arm around her.
'You noticed!'

She nodded and cocked her head to one side, letting her eyes move to the window, not really focusing on anything in particular.

'Yeah, when you're crying, you get a little wrinkle above your nose because you scrunch it up ever so slightly. You didn't have it just then.'

George nodded and gave Hermione an impressed look.
'She's good. She's definitely a keeper, Fred.' He slapped his twins arm and motioned towards Hermione with his head.

'Yeah, thank you for that, George.'

'I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I couldn't hear you.' George responded with a little cheeky grin on his face and cupping his ear.

Fred rolled his eyes and elbowed George in the ribs.
'Did you hear that?'

'I felt it, but didn't hear it. You don't tend to hear being someone elbowed in the ribs. Or at least, not in my experience you don't.'

Hermione clicked her fingers and waved her hand in front of them.
'Hello? I'm still here and I was going to say something before George butted it.'

'Yeah, George, stop butting it!' Fred said.

George scoffed.

'I'm not butting in!'

Angelina Johnson walked past and slapped the twins around the head.
'Oi, you two, let the girl talk,' she said and then smiled at Hermione knowingly before walking off to join Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell and Lee Jordan across the other side of the room.

The boys stopped and allowed Hermione to talk, rubbing the spots on their heads that Angelina had struck.

'Anyway,' she said, tucking her hair behind her ears. 'I'm not going for long and we're not going for another two weeks, plus I'll be staying at yours for christmas.'

Fred considered the last point for a moment and then mumbled loudly,
'Note to self: buy lots of mistletoe.'

Hermione giggled and rested her head on Fred's shoulder, which she had started to do more often. The pair were growing closer to each other, they were becoming more intimate with each other without crossing each other's boundaries, because one of the things that their relationship was built upon was respect. Perhaps that was one of the many reasons why they worked so well together. Although it might just be better to accept that they fit together than to boil everything down to the chemicals in their brains, which Hermione happened to be very good at.

'You won't need mistletoe.' She assured him, making George pretend to vomit once again.

xx

Ginny came bounding in to the common room, wearing the red and gold football kit that belonged to the Gryffindor team with Harry behind her sporting the same outfit, the rest of the team following not far beyond. Angelina burst to the front of the team, staring at the common room's occupants.

She cleared her throat and stood up tall.

'Ladies and gentleman, I am proud to present you,' Angelina paused and licked her lips, hoping that the pause would create some kind of tension, 'the new Gryffindor football team striker. Ginny Weasley!'

Ginny stepped forward with a large grin on her face, the crowd cheered and clapped. Harry looked particularly enthusiastic about the ordeal.

'She's an extremely good player, we're lucky to have her. So, let's give her a warm welcome and get the party started!' Angelina's voice gradually got louder and once she announced the idea of a party, everyone cheered louder than before.

It wasn't long before there was music playing all around and the room was starting to be filled with questionable dance moves.
Hermione managed to worm her way through the throng of people to go and congratulate Ginny who smiled and hugged her in return.

She walked back through the masses which seemed to have multiplied when she had her back turned. Her fingers found their way to the abandoned blanket on the sofa and she started to carry it up the winding stairs.

'And where do you think you're going?' Asked a voice following her up the stairs. Hermione didn't have to turn around to know that Fred was following her.

She smiled and carried on, stopping outside of the girl's dormitories.
'I'm going somewhere quiet to study.'

'Don't you want to stay for Ginny's party?' He asked her, resting his head against the stone wall with a far away look on his face.

'I already said my congratulations. Besides, I haven't been studying as much recently.'

'And why is that?' Fred asked, the far away look turning in to something more mischievous and smug.

'Because I've been...preoccupied.' Hermione pushed open the door and walked in hastily. Fred managed to squeeze in before the door closed.

'You're not supposed to be in here.' She told him, folding the blanket up and placing it neatly at the foot of her bed.

'Everyone's downstairs having a good time. They're never going to know we were here.'

'Now you're making it sound like we're in some form of sordid and secret relationship.'

Fred frowned slightly and sat on the side of the bed, his arms folded across his chest and slightly wrinkled shirt.

'I am? I don't think I am.'

Hermione rifled through her neat and tidy belongings for a book, it didn't take long. She sat cross legged on her bed and started writing on a bit of paper that was tucked in to the crisp pages. They sat in silence for a little while before Fred got bored.

He crawled lightly up the bed and kissed Hermione on the cheek. She smiled, still working. Fred sighed and gently started playing with the ends of Hermione's hair, twisting it between his fingers, plaiting it and then letting it unravel again.

Hermione swept her hair over to the opposite side so Fred couldn't play with it.

'Sorry. Was that distracting you?' He asked her.

'Little bit.'

In Fred's mind, it took forever for Hermione to finish this bout of study when in reality, it must have been about thirty or thirty-five minutes. Fred was quite glad that Hermione had started cutting down on her work load. He thought she worked too hard and needed to take it easy.

He let her pack away her paper and book in peace. She sat upright and gestured towards the dorm door.

'Would you like to go back to the party?' Hermione asked.

Fred contemplated it and then shook his head.

'I'd much rather stay up here with you.' He grinned wildly and then bounded on her, pulling her down on to the bed so she was lying down and then tickled her. Hermione laughed and kicked and protested until Fred finally gave up.

They lay on the bed, foreheads held together and their fingers pressed against one another's necks, feeling the heart beat of their significant other. Hermione's was starting to slow down from the tickling session and Fred's heart rate was just above resting.

'Did you know that the Greeks believed the heart to be the seat of the spirit?' Hermione said softly, her eyes fluttered underneath her lashes and locked on to Fred's which were already on her.

'I do now,' he paused. 'Seat of the spirit?'

'Your spirit resides in your heart. Or that's how I tend to interpret it.'

Fred moved his head ever so slightly and Hermione followed with it.

'What's the difference between your spirit and your soul?' Fred asked her settling his head on the pillow.

Hermione laughed gently and licked her lips.

'Good question. The spirit is immaterial. Man is not spirit, he has spirit. The soul is how you relate to others and how you understand yourself. The Greek word for soul is 'psyche' which implies that the soul is the make-up of man. You are different for every other person. The spirit is part of the soul.'

Fred listened to her closely, hanging on to every word she said, like his life depended on those words that were being formed from the girl whom he got to kiss, hold tightly and give his heart to whenever he wanted to, within reason and when it was appropriate.

'I like knowing that there is only one of you,' he told her, using his free hand to play with her hair like he had been before. 'It makes me feel extraordinarily lucky that I'm the one that managed to find you first.'

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again. She gently kissed him and lingered on his lips for just a bit longer than she probably should have.

'Thank you. You say such sweet things sometimes. It's funny though, one moment, you'll be saying things like that, the next, you're making joke shop products and throwing the small explosives you've made in front of first years as a practical joke.' She smiled widely at him. 'Perhaps that's one of the things I like about you. You're unpredictable.'

Fred stroked Hermione's cheekbone with his thumb softly which sent small shivers down her spine, like tiny icicles were piercing the skin.

'What would a smart girl like you with all your routines and organisation be doing with an unpredictable and silly guy like me?'

'Opposites attract.'

'That might be true for some.'

'It looks that way for us, don't you think?' Hermione questioned.

'Maybe.'

Hermione sat upright and ran her fingers through her hair and straightened out her clothes. She got up from the bed and stood by Fred.

'Come on, there's a party downstairs, people might start wondering where we've gotten to.'

xx

Ron was miserable at breakfast. He apparently didn't get a very good nights sleep because he was having nightmares of giant spiders attacking him. There were noticeable bags under his eyes and he was chewing moodily. Hermione was feeling quite chipper and had a large grin on her face. Harry was the way he always was, which was good because he could neutralise the attitudes of his two friends, or at least, that was what he was hoping for.

'Cheer up, Ron. It's christmas soon.' Hermione beamed pouring herself a drink of water. Ron however, didn't look impressed.

'Oh great, another jumper from my mum.' He grumbled in such a way that his bad mood might catch on to other people.

Harry swallowed a mouthful of food and chased it down with some water.
'It's not that bad.' He said shovelling another mouthful in. 'It could be a lot worse.'

Hermione agreed with him.

'It can always be a lot worse. Two more weeks until our little camping trip and then it's off to The Burrow for mince pies and a cup of hot chocolate!' She reminded him. 'That's a good thing to look forward to.'

'I suppose so...'

'You need to show those spiders in your dreams who's boss. They're only dreams.' Harry said to him. Ron's eyes widened slightly and shrugged his shoulders.

'They feel real!' He exclaimed.

'Well they're not.' Hermione told him.

'I know!'

'Then man up and stop being so grumpy about it!'

Harry butted in before Ron could retaliate.

'That's enough. You better not be like this during the camping trip. I don't want to spend the night with you in a tent arguing.'

Hermione ate her breakfast calmly, she swallowed carefully and looked up at Ron and Harry smiling still.

'I don't plan on it.' She said, looking mainly now at Ron.

'Only if she doesn't give me reason to argue with her.' Ron answered in return.

Harry just gave up and didn't mention anything about it again. He hated the way that his friends were arguing so much recently. He thought that Ron was bitter towards Hermione because she was dating his older brother, and as a result of that bitterness, Hermione was bitter towards Ron. It was a vicious cycle that he thought would never end. Harry's thoughts and speculations were stopped as he saw Ginny across the table, laughing with her friends, who probably haven't been arguing as much as Ron and Hermione did. She saw him, waved slightly and he waved back. Ron nudged Harry, bringing him back to the conversation with Ron and Hermione.

'You're staring at my sister.' Ron informed him.

Harry gave him an apologetic smile and kept his head down. He didn't need to add fuel to the fire.

xx

'Why do you keep avoiding my question?' George asked, folding his arms and smiling at Fred.

'Get used to it. I'm going to keep avoiding it until I know for certain.' Fred told him, throwing a cushion at him. George caught it and threw it back. 'Why are you so eager to know any way?'

They passed the pillow to each other over and over, their eyes following it as it was thrown across the room.

'I want to know that you're happy, that's all.' George told him. Fred raised his eyebrows and held on to the cushion.

'You're an idiot.' Fred laughed, throwing the cushion which hit George and bounced off of his head and on to the floor. 'How did your conversation with Luna in the hospital wing go?' He asked, trying to change the subject.

George nodded.

'Good. She told me about Wrackspurts and Nargles. It was very...' he paused and tried to think of the correct word to end his sentence. 'Insightful.' He said.

'Well I'm glad.' Fred told him.

'Enough sappy talk.' George said loudly. 'We've got a new batch of puking pastilles to test out.'

'I hope these ones actually work.'

'For the sake of our health and the cleanliness of the carpets, I think we all do.'

xx

'This was a bad idea.' Fred said before vomiting the contents of his stomach out in to a bucket for the fourth time in ten minutes.

'It's back to square one then.' George sighed heavily. He winced at the noise of Fred throwing up and helped move him out of the room. 'I think we should get you to the hospital wing.'

It wasn't long before Hermione was sat next to Fred's bed and wiping his forehead with a cold, damp cloth and tutting to herself.

'Do you want me to go and get my jumper again?' Hermione whispered. Fred nodded lightly and held Hermione unused hand.

'Whenever George or I had a nightmare, we'd climb in to each other's beds because we thought we'd be safer there.'

Hermione smiled and laughed quietly.

'That's adorable.'

Fred smiled too.

'I'll be back soon, okay?' Hermione told him, getting up and kissing him on the cheek, leaving the cloth on his head to keep him cool.

She passed George on her way down the corridor, he had a book grasped in his hand. Hermione looked down at it. George noticed and held it up.

'Just in case he gets bored. I know how boring it can be in there.'

She nodded understandingly and then sighed.

'You boys and your home made joke shop products. They might kill you one day.' She looked at George with a stern look, one that he recognised as a look that his mother might have given him.

George shuffled on his feet lightly.

'Well I hope not.'

'Me too. Just be more careful, okay? I'd hate for anything to happen to you two.' Hermione crossed her arms and looked up at George who then apologised to her.

'But things already have happened.' George reminded her, pointing to where his ear should be.

'I mean something potentially fatal.'

George ruffled Hermione's hair and grinned.

'You're like a mother and a sister mixed in to one. You're basically a package deal.'

Hermione frowned slightly and shook her head, not being able to think of something to say in return. George laughed and carried on walking.

'Thanks for the concern!' He called back to her.

Hermione rolled her eyes and carried on her journey to retrieve the jumper that Fred had slept with a few weeks ago. It wasn't one that she wore particularly often but Fred seemed to appreciate it any way. Because she didn't really wear it, it still smelled of Fred. It was quite comforting to her for some reason.

Hermione was worried about Fred and George, she always was. She honestly didn't want to see either of them get seriously hurt. George's lost ear was enough for her, anything else would definitely be too much.

And seeing them lying in a bed, possibly dying and seriously injured, would certainly break her heart.