Hermione froze, looking down into her lap. A herd of centaurs stampeding past would not have made her look up right now. The twins again caught each other's eyes. Fred gave a decisive nod to urge his brother on. George persisted, 'Hermione, sweetheart, do you mean us? If you do, then you must know we're mad about you.'

'Always have been, since you brought me back. Longer even,' said Fred, his voice now a little husky, uncertain. 'We're in love with you. There's nothing we can do about it.'

'We've always had a thing for you, Hermione. Even at school – you were our favourite verbal sparring partner,' George continued. 'But since you did that spell, it's bound us to you. Made it stronger.'

Hermione finally raised her eyes to meet George's, then Fred's. For once, there was not a hint of a joke on their faces. 'Yes, it is. You. Both of you. I feel the bond as well. But it's hopeless, isn't it?'

'Why?' George asked, still holding her hand.

'Because… because, don't you get it? I feel the same about both of you. But how could I ever choose between you? And possibly separate one from the other? The bond we share can't possibly be stronger than the bond you two have. And now we've said it, haven't we? It won't be the same as before, just going back to being flatmates. I'll have to move out, and…' She began to flail in panic.

'No!' Both men leaned forward. 'There's another way, Hermione', George offered. 'We've talked about it.'

'It's the only way, really,' Fred said. 'Have both of us.'

Hermione didn't answer, but looked from twin to twin, not quite trusting herself to answer.

'We read about it – don't laugh, you know very well how much we read, sweetheart! All that stuff we sell doesn't come from not doing our research,' laughed George. 'But we also remembered something Mum said once, about a great-uncle of hers and his husband and wife.'

'It's called a Triad Bond,' said Fred. 'Mum didn't sound very approving at the time, but we went and did some reading about it recently.'

Hermione shook her head. 'I know about Triad Bonds. I've read about them too. They don't tend to work.'

'That's because there's often an imbalance,' countered Fred. 'If one witch or wizard is far more powerful than the others, or if there's a massive age gap, like with Mum's uncle.'

'But that's not the same for us, is it?' asked George, searching Hermione's eyes. 'No exploitation here. We're close in age. And – well everyone knows you're one of the cleverest witches around, but we're no slouches in that department – you say it yourself. We're a pretty fair match in our different ways.'

'Best kept secret in the wizarding world,' Fred said. 'So – Hermione. Love. What do you say? Would you take on us sorry wretches?'

She didn't answer straight away. 'Yes,' she said after a thoughtful pause. 'We can do it, if anyone can.' She laughed. 'It'd be wonderful, wouldn't it? Not to hide our feelings any m…'

Before she could finish, George leant forward and gently kissed her, then his twin leant in to kiss her as well. The three broke apart, all looked stunned at what they'd started. Hermione broke the silence. 'There's one condition. We get Molly's blessing.'

'What?' Fred was stunned. 'Mum's not going to like this. She's so…'

'Conventional. I know,' Hermione finished for him. 'But if we can get her blessing, then I feel that we don't need to worry about what anyone else thinks – she'll be our toughest critic. Besides, after all she's done for me since my parents… I'd never go sneaking round behind her back with something important like this.' She looked at the twins sitting on the floor beside her, George, shaking his head in despair, and Fred covering his eyes with his hand. 'I have an idea about how we can do this.'

The twins looked up. Hermione's ideas had a tendency to be good.

'We try it out on Professor McGonagall first. She's tough, but fair. If she is understanding about… us… then I think it would give us the confidence to face Molly.'

The twins nodded their agreement. Hermione stood up. 'I'll floo her. She won't be as busy as usual, given it's still the holidays at Hogwarts.' She went over to the fireplace, unused in the summer, and took a small amount of Floo powder in her hand. 'Fluvium loquatious!' she exclaimed, giving the incantation required to communicate with the headmistress, as she tossed in the powder. She got to her knees to put her face in the small green fire that leapt up in the grate.

George and Fred listened intently, as they heard McGonagall's unmistakable voice issue out of the flames, but could only catch scraps of the conversation. 'What on earth! … time do you call this?... Well, Miss Granger… service to Hogwarts... Soon…' The conversation ended and Hermione stood up, looking mildly triumphant and a little ash-streaked. 'She says to come now. She'll lift the protective enchantments on her grate temporarily for us to floo in if we come right away before she goes to bed.'

The twins didn't hesitate, but stepped over to where Hermione stood and put their arms around her waist – each dropping a kiss on her cheek. George reached out for a handful of powder and threw it into the grate. 'McGonagall's study!'

*** Just a short chapter, but with a bit of resolution - hope it's enough to go on for now! Would love to know what you think! ***