A/N: I'm really sorry for a late update. I had a really nasty writer's block and on top of it's my last year at uni. But I can promise that I won't abandon this story. Please, leave reviews about this chapter~!

Disclaimer: All original characters and canon events belong to JKRowling. I'm not making any profit from posting this fanfic.

FW&HG&GW

Despite the generally accepted facts, the magic of soulmates is not as simple as it is described to us in other books or fairy tales on this topic. Yes, I do not deny that the first meeting of soulmates is important, but this does not mean that they are obliged to fall in love with each other at first sight, even the marks do not appear immediately. No, soulmates also need some time to get to know their soul mate, just as the marks need arealization that you cannot live without this person.

HGHGHG

Hermione Granger cannot remember exactly how many nights she had to sleep in the Hospital Wing in the past five years. Apparently, one too many times, if she can determine her location even without opening her eyes. The smell of fresh linen and incomprehensible potions, which would no doubt taste disgusting - for nothing can smell like that and still taste good - all indicated that, apparently, Hermione had managed to get seriously injured just by watching a Quidditch match. Bravo, Granger.

"I can hear the gears in your head turning right from here, Granger. I didn't think that someone was capable of overthinking something in an unconscious state," said a familiar voice, thereby interrupting her entire thought process. "Come on, Granger, wake up."

Instead of obeying the words of the "stranger," Hermione froze on the hospital bed with her eyes closed tightly, because for all her time in the Hospital Wing, it was the first time when she woke up in the company of someone other than the agitated Madam Pomfrey, who forced her to drink all the same nasty potions of a suspicious color. And suddenly Hermione felt the thousands of little Snitches flutter their graceful wings in her belly.

When she was little, she was a very healthy child. In addition to this, she spent almost all of her time at home reading a book, preferring once again not to contact her peers and classmates. Because unlike those children, even the most useless books can't be cruel and wouldn't ridicule you for being different from others. Therefore, in most cases, Hermione managed to avoid the fate of having a cold, even in the times when almost all of her classmates suffered from this disease.

But in those rare moments when she fell ill with something, her parents remained by her side until they themselves were convinced that she had recovered. However, at Hogwarts, things were very different - Madam Pomfrey was very strict about the peace of her patients and therefore tried to not let visitors in, and even though Harry and Ron were caring friends, they were not the types who would spend several hours next to the sleeping person, waiting for them to wake up.

Therefore, the thought that someone was stubborn enough to be granted a permission to stay in the Hospital Wing - Hermione knows that few will be able to argue with Madam Pomfrey - just to keep an eye on her, filled her with warmth.

"If anyone is capable of overthinking things while being unconscious, it's me," said Hermione and slowly opened her eyes, trying to blink away the dark spots in front of her eyes.

Her head was buzzing as if a bludger had a go at her. Not surprising, though, considering that she was actually hit in the head with a bludger.

Judging by the sharp exhalation, it looks like her visitor did not expect that she would really wake up. Trying to not make any sudden movements, the Gryffindor turned towards the sound and her gaze met with bright blue eyes full of concern. Hermione's heart skipped a beat.

In an apparently transfigured chair to her right sat none other than Fred Weasley. He looked a little disheveled: his hair and school uniform were in a slight disarray, and there was no trace of that carefree smile that adorned his face this morning.

"I can't believe you managed to get injured while being outside of the Quidditch field, Granger," Fred said with a slight shake of his head, and leaned forward to brush the unruly lock of hair from the girl's face that was getting into her eyes.

This is exactly who Fred Weasley is, Hermione thought almost fondly. No pointless questions about her well-being or angry tirades about how she should be more careful. He never tried to explain anything, because he let his actions speak for him.

"And I thought that at least you and George would appreciate it," Granger tried to joke, but received only a small forced smile in response. "By the way, what happened after my incident? Why aren't you with everyone else in Gryffindor Tower, you must have thrown a victory party?"

Her questions made Fred's little smile disappear altogether, and he sighed heavily, running his hands through his hair. His actions was immediately echoed with uneasiness in her chest, and Hermione tried to get into a sitting position, but Fred pressed lightly on her shoulders with his hand to stop her actions. He handed her the potion that Madame Pomfrey had left for him before leaving for a short while. Fred could not believe that he had managed to stay in the Hospital Wing for so long when the mediwitch didn't allowed others to even enter the Hospital Wing in the first place. Maybe Pomfrey saw an echo of despair on his face.

"I'm afraid they're not in the mood for celebration right now, Granger," he began, and reluctantly started talking briefly about everything that had happened, despite his initial excuses that she needed to rest properly and not worry about unimportant things.

That unimportant thing, as Fred put it, was obviously the fact that now, because of Umbridge, there was no beater and seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Who, by a happy coincidence, were Hermione's best friend and her object of love. Just brilliant. Well, at least Fred managed to stay in the team, the Gryffindor thought and resisted the urge to grimace, because the twins will have a hard time anyway.

"I don't know who is more upset by today's events. Harry, George or Angelina," Fred added and glanced at his watch. Too engrossed in their conversation they did not notice how quickly time flew by. "It must be hard to be a team captain, and on top of it when a seeker and a beater are suddenly kicked out of the team... I really don't envy her."

"You're not helping, you know," Hermione muttered under her breath to herself, but her words were loud enough to draw Fred's attention to herself.

Granger could not find an intelligible explanation for the feelings she had for the older Gryffindor girl. She considered herself above such an emotion as envy, so this could not be the reason. Yes, Angelina was lucky enough to date George. Yes, she was beautiful, tall, but also fun and athletic. And yes, all these qualities together caused a feeling of self-consciousness, but even that was not the point. Hermione didn't like how easily she got the respect of the Gryffindors, both boys and girls, when Hermione had to fight tooth and nail to prove to everyone over and over again that she, too, deserved to be at Hogwarts. She didn't like how confident Johnson was in public, how condescendingly she sometimes smiled at her, as if she felt sorry for Hermione, and finally, she didn't like that Angelina never appreciated the twins as they deserved. No one appreciated them like they deserved.

Hermione had never seen the Gryffindor chasers thank the twins after a match for a good job. In a sense, they can be understood, because it was precisely the beaters' responsibility to ensure the safety of the players of their team from the bludger. But don't they see how the twins go out of their way to prevent especially the girls from being hit with a bludger? Merlin knows, sometimes they even let those nasty balls hit them instead!

"What are you thinking so hard about-"

"I want to play on the team," the brunette suddenly interrupted Fred, as if she was afraid she would change her mind if she allowed herself a few more minutes to think. Although, who knows, maybe that was the case.

Fred can continue to take care of the girls on the team, Hermione thought with a nasty little smirk she learned from Malfoy. But she will make sure that her boys finish the match in the same form in which they started it.

FWFWFW

Fred just didn't have time to feel guilty about George. It seemed to him that the whole day had swept past him like a whirlwind, leaving behind only a kaleidoscope of blurry pictures. But ironically, forgetting the image of the unconscious Granger turned out to be next to impossible. And now, when he had already presented the shocking news to everyone, he just wanted to lie down and sleep for a day or two. But Fred knows that he should approach George and, if not apologize, then at least offer him silent company and his support, because this is, perhaps, the first time when only one of them received a scolding from professor. Plus, this time everything was serious. So, ignoring the exhausted state he was in, he forced himself to sit down on George's bed to talk to his twin, who, judging by the sound of heavy footsteps, was about to enter the room.

And he was right, for in the next second the door of their room opened, revealing George, who looked exactly like Fred himself felt. If Fred didn't know all of today's events, he would say that George looked like he had encountered a dementor and all the color was sucked out of him along with every happy memories. Not a very pleasant comparison, but it worked perfectly.

George, with a noisy sigh, sprawled on his bed next to his brother and tiredly closed his eyes, but did not shooed Fred away. Apparently, he also wanted to be in Fred's company.

"How is Granger feeling?" or, obviously, George was just itching to find out about Hermione.

"She's fine, I think Pomfrey will let her out of the Hospital Wing tomorrow," Fred replied, and snorted loudly, shaking his head. "Though I personally think she might be a little out of her mind."

"Yeah, never imagined that The Hermione Granger would volunteer to play in the Quidditch team," George picked up after him, and there was an almost imperceptible, tiny smile on his face, at the sight of which Fred had to swallow a lump in his throat.

Their room was dark, lit only by the dim moonlight shining through the large window. Fred ran a hand through his already tousled hair and caught a small black spot on his hand out of the corner of his eye, but didn't even look at it. I should take a shower, he thought involuntarily.

"Do you think Umbridge can tell us apart?" Fred suddenly asked, unexpectedly even for himself, and immediately found himself in George's suffocating embrace, which almost caused him to lose his balance and fall to the floor.

"I feel sorry for Potter that he doesn't have a twin like you, Freddie," George said, and despite the fact that they still had a lot of things that they would definitely have to talk about in the future, for today their conversation was finished.

Fred didn't even bother to suppress his loud groan of disappointment, which was immediately followed by a pillow from his twin. Thanks to the annoying sunbeams that stubbornly shone right on his face, he had to admit defeat and leave the comfort of his warm bed. I can't even afford to have a good rest on my well-deserved day off, Fred thought irritably, and threw the pillow right back at George's head with all the strength his sleepy form could muster.

"Wanker," a sleepy murmur came in response, and there was a sound of rustling blanket, apparently the younger twin decided to follow his brother's lead as well. Faced with absolute silence, George turned his gaze to the uncharacteristically quiet Fred, who usually acted as if waking up his roommates was the very purpose of his existence.

"What the…?" for a second, Fred thought he was still asleep. However, George's stunned look directed at his hand quickly dispelled his doubts. They must have looked like complete idiots from the outside, because they kept looking at Fred's hand as if the latter had grown an extra limb overnight.

The Weasley family were perhaps the most infamous blood traitors at Hogwarts, if not Britain. Many pureblood families repeatedly accused them of not honoring the tradition as they should, and more than once cast derogatory glances after them. However, even Arthur and Molly Weasley considered soulmate magic to be sacred, and therefore all their children grew up listening to numerous fairy tales and stories about it. And also about the fact that magical twins always bonded to the same person.

Fred remembers that as a child, secretly from others, he and George loved to dream of a mysterious girl who would turn their troublesome duo into an incredible trio. How they laughed and teased each other, arguing that the girl would certainly fall in love with the first one, and not with the other, but in the end they always made up, because it was okay, she will love them both.

And if the bluish-black tattoo that magically appeared on Fred's ring finger isn't the fruit of a group hallucination, then it looks like another childhood dream of theirs has found a way to turn into reality.

"It can't be true," George breathed, and a wide smile slowly spread across his previously pale from the shock face. There was one big question mark in his bright blue eyes.

Fred always had a few witty words and even some mean remarks at the ready, but right at this moment he couldn't form even the most simple sentence. Suddenly, his eyes burned, although there were no tears. Finding his - well, their - soulmate in Hermione Granger was something unthinkable, unattainable, but now Fred could not imagine anything, anyone who would feel more right.

Fred turned his gaze back to the tattoo and couldn't understand how George couldn't see it. The tattoo was beautiful. It resembled the branches of the Whomping Willow, but if you looked at it very closely, you could see how these patterns formed a certain letter.

"Granger," Fred's lips said the familiar name like a prayer, and for the first time in a long time, he felt like he could breathe. And this time without the ache in his heart that always followed her name.

GWGWGW

The Gryffindor common room was empty. The students decided to spend time before dinner near the Black Lake, enjoying one of the last warm days. George, taking advantage of the opportunity, slowly took a seat on the large sofa in front of the fireplace and leaned back. It's been exactly a five days since he found out that Fred has a soulmate. Fred's soulmate, George thought to himself for the umpteenth time. Because, no, George didn't believe that Hermione Granger could be his soulmate either. And although numerous facts state quite the opposite to him, he simply can't part with this thought. Not that he had any issues with Granger. Merlin, no. But somehow it made him feel betrayed in some way. Whether due to the fact that soulmates always seemed to him like something distant and unattainable, or because the mark appeared not with him, but with Fred. And the latter meant that George was so blind that he had no idea about the feelings of his own twin. Nor did Fred see fit to share it with him. That stung quite a bit.

The silence, broken only by the crackle of the fire, did not at all help to get rid of unnecessary thoughts. With a heavy sigh, George continued to think about what he managed to see last week. Despite the uncomfortable feeling that he was unceremoniously intruding into something very personal, he spent all those five days watching the relationship between his twin and Granger. And although the fifth-year prefect devoted almost all her time to supporting Harry, which made his task very difficult, George managed to achieve his goal. He saw how Fred unconsciously reached out to the petite brunette all the time, how blue eyes carefully followed her every movement, as if he was afraid that at any moment she might vanish right before his eyes. George involuntarily remembered the voice in which Fred had said her name. And if not for the whole soulmate thing, then George would have accused Granger of using a love potion on his twin.

At the same time, it seems to George that in all his life he has never looked at Hermione for so long than in the past week. In their Quidditch practice, he was so dedicated to the game that he didn't particularly notice anything suspicious. However, if he was being honest, sometimes there were such moments when he also did not have the willpower to take his eyes off her. There was something in the image of a carelessly laughing Hermione Granger that caught the eye.

"Fred's soulmate," George said in a barely audible voice, as if reminding himself, and if there was a hint of bitterness in his words, he decided not to pay attention to it.

George saw how Hermione acted around Fred. A soft smile never left her face, and her brown eyes exuded fondness. To George's surprise, it seemed to him that from time to time Granger also looked at him. But in those moments, worry was read in her eyes, and her smile became a tad sadder. And she looked at him, as if he were something far away, as if he was not standing two steps away from her. Definitely wishes Fred was there instead of me, George's subconscious whispered, causing him to look away.

"What are you thinking about?" said a soft female voice from beside him, and George came face to face with the object of his thoughts.

The warm brown eyes were not only closely looking at his facial expression, but also it felt like she was trying to imperceptibly look into his soul in order to pull out all the lies that his lips had uttered over the past few days.

"That you're not a very good friend," said George in mock resentment as the brunette sat down next to him on the couch.

Granger's hair was loose, her back straight, and her hands, which for some unknown reason nervously fiddled with the edges of her gray skirt, froze as soon as the meaning of his words reached her.

"What?" her warm brown eyes widened in disbelief, and she turned to him, no doubt to demand a detailed and logical explanation. "What do you-"

"You spent all this week next to Harry, as if you were glued to each other by a spell, and you even forgot about me," George interrupted her and made a disappointed face that came out quite convincingly in connection with the emotions that raged inside George. "In case you still don't remember it, I've been kicked off the team too, Granger. So where is my well-deserved moral support?"

George's heart pounded faster as he saw Hermione's expression soften and her eyes take on a knowing glint in them.

"I don't believe for a second that you and Fred haven't come up with some devious plan that will let you play. But so be it, I'll keep your secret," the brunette laughed and winked playfully at him, which was completely unusual for the Gryffindor prefect. George didn't even know she could wink! It wasn't that he thought Granger was boring, it was just that she had never acted this way around him. To George Weasley belonged only shy smiles and sad brown eyes, not playful winks and ringing laughter.

Or maybe you've been wrong, a voice sounded in his head which suspiciously reminded him of his twin.

Instead of answering Granger's remark, George brazenly lay down on the sofa and rested his head on the girl's lap, throwing his long, lean legs over the worn velvet armrest. And if he noticed how her legs tensed for a moment from his unexpected actions, then he did not show it, and only allowed a lazy grin to adorn his face.

"What do you think you are doing?" Hermione murmured in confusion, awkwardly raising her hands, not daring to put them on George.

"I giving you the opportunity to make amends," George retorted and, without looking at the Hermione, grabbed her hand to put on his head.

To be honest, George Weasley had no idea why he even did all of this. But he liked the feel of Granger's small hand on his chest and her slender fingers combing hesitantly through his red hair, tugging at it.

"It would be perfect if you sang me a lullaby," George purred and opened his eyes, watching with interest how her cheeks turned pink.

"Don't even dream about it," the girl muttered irritably, but against her will, a soft, soft smile appeared on her face that took George's breath away for a second.

She didn't look at him, knowing he was watching her, but her lips were still stretched into a smile. The smile that George had seen directed at Fred all those days after she'd been released from the Hospital Wing. Which was now directed at him.

And George couldn't help but wonder, if she could be his soulmate too.

FWFWFW

When Fred Weasley went in search of his twin, he could not imagine that such a picture would await him. And if a week ago, the sight of Hermione and George sitting comfortably on the couch may have made him want to tear his heart out of his chest, now it only caused him a sigh of relief.

Because it meant that George finally accepted her as his soulmate too.

"I'm offended that you didn't even deign to invite me to join your little party," Fred said quietly as he approached the couch, making the quietly bickering couple flinch in surprise.

"We decided to surprise you," said George without missing a beat, but cast a guilty look at him. The Weasley twins' signature crooked grin appeared on Fred's face, showing that everything was okay and no harm was done.

Fred sank down on the free arm of the couch at Granger's side and gestured impatiently for her to continue running her fingers through George's hair.

"Well, I've always wanted to learn how to braid," said Fred, and, transfiguring the spare quill in his pocket into a comb, set to work on the overwhelmed brunette's hair.