A/N: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I don't own Fred, George, or Hermione. I do, however, own the character Penelope, and she was a main character in the previous chapter. I don't own anything mentioned in this that's related to Harry Potter either. I've jabbered enough, let's read!

O0O0O

Fred and Hermione were walking to Fred and George's room. Fred had been released from the hospital only two days earlier, and George was in the twins' room.

"Thanks again for helping me," Fred told Hermione. "I wouldn't be standing here without you."

"You're welcome. I love you too much to let you die," replied Hermione. A few dozen feet from Fred's room Hermione heard a bang that made both her and Fred turn around. A pair of broomsticks were flying towards them.

"Oh, no," Fred whispered. The brooms flew beneath him and Hermione, taking them out an open window. They soared into the air, going at least eight hundred feet in the air before being thrown off. They fell on the ground, and George darted out of the house.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"What do you think? We just fell eight hundred feet, I can barely move my head!" said Fred.

"Yeah, well, that wasn't supposed to happen anyway," said George. "It was supposed to only go a hundred feet."

"Hermione, are you okay?" Fred asked. When he didn't get an answer, he started to worry. "Hermione? Hermione! HERMIONE!" No answer.

"Oh, no, please, no," said George. He was worried, too.

"George, you need to get us to St. Mungo's!" Fred shouted. "Yes, me too, I can't move," he added as George gave him a confused look.

O0O0O

Fred was healed so he could walk around but he couldn't leave the hospital. George was with him all the time, and Hermione had been knocked out. George kept apologizing to Fred, telling him something went wrong with the prank. Fred spent most of his spare time watching over Hermione. She'd woken up an hour after George got them to St. Mungo's. Then she slept most of the time.

"I love you, Hermione...," Fred said one afternoon while watching Hermione. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. Tears fell from his face to hers.

"I'm sorry, mate," George had told him. "I really am, I-"

"It's fine, George," Fred told him. "It doesn't make you any less of a brother. Or a twin," he added, smiling at his 12-minute-younger brother.

"Yes, it does," insisted George, walking over to a window and looking out of it. "I almost killed both of you because of what was meant to be a harmless prank."

"Don't say that, I'll never hate you for pranking me. You should probably test them on flobberworms first, though," said Fred, walking over to George. "I'm always going to love you, even if you nearly kill me."

"But-"

"No buts, Gred. The only quality I really hate about you is the fact that you blame yourself for hurting me, then you say it makes you less of a brother and avoid looking at me. Come on, I want to see my eyes," Fred teased, nudging George's shoulder playfully. George rolled his eyes that were identical to Fred's, but didn't look at him.

"Fred, you're so calm about this, but I almost killed you. Bloody killed you. When I went to check on you, I was surprised you were still alive, I was watching out the window." Fred could see George's reflection in the window and saw tears falling down his face.

"George, please. Look at me." George looked down at his arms, which were crossed on the windowsill. Tears fell from his face to his arms.

"Fred, I'm a terrible brother," he said. "I almost killed you, almost killed Hermione, joked when we got to the flat after Ron was pois-"

"George, joking is how we both deal with being stressed or worried. When you lost your ear, we did the same thing," replied Fred. "The least you could do is not blame yourself for what happened and not say you're a terrible brother."

"It was my fault though!" argued George. "I didn't test it!"

"We both think we're too smart to have to check our pranks, George. It's not your fault it went wrong," said Fred, smiling slightly. "Although, in all honesty, you really should've tested it."

"Only if our new motto can be 'Test Before You Prank,'" said George, finally looking at Fred. Fred was relieved to see him smiling.

"Nope, our motto's still 'If you can't handle it, don't prank it,' because we came up with that when we were four," said Fred, chuckling at the saying his and his twin's younger selves had come up with. There was a small laugh from behind them, and both turned to see Hermione laughing behind them.

"Hermione, you're okay!" said Fred, running to her and hugging her. Relief flooded over him.

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Hermione, giggling as George looked at them happily. "Fred, I'm fine, you can let go of me," she said, hugging Fred back but pulling back after five seconds.

"No," said Fred, smiling at her.

"Then I'll give you something to do," said Hermione, laughing. "I see you've gotten used to your brother being all lovey-dovey with me," she continued, looking at George.

"I guess," he said, grinning. "After meeting Penelope and snogging her it's kinda hard not to accept that everyone falls in love."

"Fred, what time is it? I'm hungry," said Hermione. Without pulling back from hugging her, Fred checked his watch.

"Twelve thirty. What do you want to eat?" Fred asked, finally pulling back from a five minute long hug.

"Hmm... How about a midnight breakfast?" Hermione replied, looking out the window. It could only be twelve thirty at night, because it was dark out and a crescent moon was shining brightly through the window.

"Okay," said Fred. He went out and asked if he could get some pancakes, and came back with two pancakes, some warm maple syrup, and some blueberries and raspberries.

"Thanks, Fred." Hermione began to dig in, and saw that both twins looked hungry, too. She told them each could have half of her second pancake, and game them each a handful of fruit.

"Thanks," said Fred and George in unison. George was leaning on the windowsill to keep his balance. Fred was sitting next to Hermione's bed, and after he finished eating, he talked to her a little, then his head fell on his shoulder and he fell asleep.

"Hasn't he gotten any sleep?" Hermione asked George with a questioning look on her face.

"Not since the night before the accident. Directly after he was permitted to leave his room he came to make sure you were okay," he answered. "I kept telling him to go back to his room and rest but he wouldn't. He refused to leave your room for over an hour."

"At least I know he cares about me," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "Not like I don't care about him."

"Well, obviously you care about him otherwise you wouldn't have been worried when I told you he hasn't slept in three days," George replied. Fred curled up into a ball in his sleep at that moment, adjusting a little so he could fit in the chair. Hermione couldn't hold back her smile. She finished her food, and then she too fell asleep. George walked over to her bed and put her blanket on her. He found an extra blanket and put it on Fred. Eventually he fell asleep. But not before he heard Fred and Hermione muttering each other's names in their sleep.

When Fred woke up, it was about six in the morning. He'd only gotten five or six hours of sleep. He looked over at Hermione, who was asleep on her bed and had her hair messed up. Then he looked at George, who had a blueberry in the hole on the right side of his head.

'There's an odd way to store food if you're going to eat it,' thought Fred, smiling at George's thought of how to store food the "proper" way. He'd done it before at the flat above Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and kept it there until he got hungry. Hermione yawned, making Fred turn around.

"Morning, 'Mione," he told her, still grinning from George having a blueberry where his ear should be.

"Hey, Fred," replied Hermione. "Why does George have a blueberry in his head?"

"That's how he saves food for later," Fred explained.

"Did I hear my name?" asked a voice behind Fred. He turned around, and saw George on the floor and rubbing his neck.

"Stiff neck?" asked Fred. "Should've slept with a pillow, mate."

"Yeah," answered George, laughing a little.

"Are you hungry again, Hermione?" Fred asked. She nodded as her stomach growled. "I can get you some eggs and sausage, and I'll get some for us, too, Gred," he added as his twin's stomach growled too and he gave Fred a desperate look. He came back with three plates of eggs and sausage, with a little bacon too. Before George even touched his plate he took the blueberry from the hole in his head, tossing it in his mouth.

"That's disgusting," said Hermione, though she was laughing slightly.

"You've seen worse," replied George. "I just know you have."

"Yeah? Like what?" asked Fred, even though this was a question for Hermione.

"Let's see... Ron and Lavender making out... Er..."

"You can't think of anything else, can you?" asked Hermione.

"Nope," said George, taking a bite out of his eggs. Fred did the same. "Although, how I imagine that, it's terrible with how she was looking at Ron when you guys first visited the shop. Her look alone was bad."

"Ron's seen worse," Fred told them. "You probably would be better off not knowing, Hermione. It happened before Ron came crawling back to you and Harry. Or during, more like."

After they'd finished eating, Hermione watched Fred and George play wizard's chess. Fred won, with George only taking out a knight and two pawns.

"Thanks for letting me win, buddy," said Fred, balling up his hand into a fist and hitting George in the chest. He fell over, using his hands to break his fall.

"Not a word, Freddie," said George, getting back up. "My missing ear still affects my balance."

"Speaking of your missing ear, how can your ears be lopsided if you're missing one?" asked Hermione.

"I have no clue," replied George. "Muriel's just an old bat."

O0O0O

Fred was battling a Death Eater. George was at the opposite end of the Great Hall, battling two. Fred felt his legs become tied up, and he knew a jinx had been used on him. He looked at the other end of the hall. George was still battling Death Eaters, but Fred could hear the spells.

"Avada Kedavera!" one of them shouted, aiming at George's chest.

"No!" Fred shouted, then jerked awake. He looked over to where George was, relieved to see that he was okay.

"Fred? Are you okay?" Hermione asked him, sliding off her bed.

"Yeah, just a nightmare. I'm fine," Fred assured her. He didn't get anymore sleep. He couldn't get the pain of losing George to leave him. When Hermione woke up the next morning, Fred was crying slightly.

"Okay, Fred. You seriously need to tell me what that nightmare was about," Hermione told him, sitting up and telling him to go sit by her. "What's wrong? Usually if you were up late you'd be trying to make me laugh, and I usually don't wake up to the sound or sight of you crying."

"I- I had a nightmare about George. It... In the nightmare I lost him to a Killing Curse," Fred told Hermione, hugging her tightly. "I couldn't disarm the Death Eater or anything, I was jinxed or something."

"It's fine, the battle's over," Hermione told him, trying to relax him.

"The war's not over, though," said Fred, looking down at his lap. "There's still more fighting coming, and I could lose George during that."

"Or I could lose you," said Hermione. "You can sleep with me tonight if you want, I might comfort you like you do me."

"I think you do, actually," said Fred. "This is my first nightmare since we got you from the slave trader. And I sleep with you every night."

"What are you two talking about?" asked George, yawning. They weren't aware that he'd woken up.

"Nothing," said Fred. "Now, make like a good puppy and get us something to eat, like a tray of toast and cereal," he added, smiling at his twin, whose ear turned red.

"You should really come up with better jokes, Forge," said George, marching out of the room.

"I thought as my partner-in-crime you'd be able to take a joke, Gred!" Fred shouted after him, smiling widely.

"Who said I didn't take that?" replied George, poking his head through the doorway.

"You basically gave it away, your ear's bright red," said Fred.

"You know, I really hate you sometimes, Freddie," George told him, covering his ear and the hole where his other ear had been.

"I know that's not true," argued Fred.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah!"

The twins kept arguing, until Hermione interrupted.

"Okay, Fred, get back over here, George, go get breakfast, your brother and I are starving."