A/N: Short chapter today. If you prefer, come back on Friday and read this one and that one together instead.
Mrs. Weasley was looking down at her suspiciously, while Hermione did her best to seem innocent.
"I don't need much time," she repeated, apologetically. "I just have a couple questions for him, and then I'll be on my way." She paused. "Unless the twins are free."
Mrs. Weasley heaved a sigh.
"Fred and George are outside already," she said. "I made them keep their 'inventing' out of the house." She gave Hermione a skeptical look. "You might as well come in."
Hermione thanked her, following Mrs. Weasley into the Burrow.
It was as homey and as cluttered as Hermione remembered. Ron and Ginny were sitting at the breakfast table, along with Percy and Mr. Weasley. Surprised, Hermione smiled.
"Percy! Congratulations!" she said, meaning it. "I heard you got hired to the International Relations Department of the Ministry right out of Hogwarts."
Percy was obviously surprised by Hermione's sudden appearance, but at her words, he puffed up and straightened his back.
"I did," he said, proud. "Mr. Crouch has already come to rely on me a lot. He's got me working on an important report on international trade standards—"
"Not the cauldron bottoms again," Ron groaned. Percy shot him a foul look.
"Yes, Ron, cauldron bottoms. You think it's insignificant now, but wait until your cauldron melts out in the middle of class, dumping who-knows-what on your foot—"
"Mr. Weasley, you work with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts branch, right?" Hermione asked him. Mr. Weasley blinked, startled from his paper. It took him a minute to look her over quizzically, but he shrugged.
"I do," he said.
"Do you ever have to Memory Charm muggles who have gotten their hands on something magical?" Hermione asked. "As part of your job?"
Mr. Weasley laughed. "Oh, heavens, no! I just call the Obliviators – they're the ones to handle that sort of thing. I'd never risk a Memory Charm myself."
Hermione made a face. "Is there any counter-charm for the Memory Charm that you know of?"
"I've never heard of such a thing," Mr. Weasley said. "I don't think it exists."
"It might not," a new voice came from the hallway, "but it could exist."
Hermione turned in surprise to see a new Weasley had emerged – this one with long ginger hair and a fang dangling from ear. He was smiling, and Hermione tilted her head.
"Are charms like curses, then?" she asked, wondering. "Where each one could have a counter-curse, but not all of them have been necessarily found?"
The new Weasley raised his eyebrows and whistled.
"Where'd you find this one, Ron?" he asked. "You generally don't learn about counter-curses in depth in your first three years."
Ron's ears turned red, and he sunk deeper in his chair.
"She's not my friend," he muttered. "And she's a ruddy Slytherin. That's how she knows so much about curses."
To Hermione's surprise, the new Weasley tilted his head, considering her.
"She's got a coven ring, a Veela protection bracelet, and a magical pendant of some sort," the long-haired Weasley said. He grinned at her, apologetic. "Doesn't seem too evil to me."
"Bill!" Mrs. Weasley huffed, coming back into the dining room. "If you're going to keep your hair that long, you should at least have brushed it—"
"Charlie's in the shower," Bill said, shrugging. "I'll brush it after I've had a turn."
Mrs. Weasley rolled her eyes. "If you'd let me cut it just a little—"
"How'd you pick up on all that so fast?" Hermione asked Bill, interrupting Mrs. Weasley. "The ring's got a Notice-Me-Not on it, and no one's ever said anything about my bracelet."
Bill grinned.
"I work as a cursebreaker for the goblins at Gringotts," he said cheerfully. "I've gotten good at my job, as well as recognizing different artifacts."
Hermione's eyes widened.
"So you can make counter-curses," she breathed. "You can, can't you? You have to for your job, don't you?"
"Sometimes," Bill said, equivocating. "There are other ways to break a curse on an object—"
"I don't care about those," Hermione said, waving her hand. "I care about a counter for the Memory Charm to bring back someone's memories."
Bill paused.
"Well," he said. "Is the Memory Charm temporary or lasting magic?"
"Lasting, isn't it?" Hermione said. "It's not like the person's memories come back."
"Ah, but is that the effect of the spell cast?" Bill asked. "Or is it the end, stable result?"
Hermione thought back to second year, wracking her brain.
"Oh, no, you're right," she groaned. "It's temporary – once the memories have been wiped or rearranged, it finishes, and that's the new equilibrium state. You'd have to cast it while someone else was casting Obliviate. Aarghhh…"
She pressed her fists to her eyes tightly, frustrated, and the new Weasley laughed.
"Why?" he asked. "Have you been memory-charmed?"
He said it in a teasing tone of voice, but Hermione lowered her hands and levelled him with a look.
"Yes," she said flatly. "Or, at least, it seems that way."
Bill looked startled. "Wait, really? How did you—"
"Bye, Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, getting up. "Thank you for your time. I'll look for the twins in the back."
There was a shout of protest, but Hermione was out the door quickly, squinting into the sun. She wandered around the back of the house to where there was a large tree and an old shed, and she found the twins crouched on the far side of the tree, messing with what looked like muggle candies. As she approached, her shadow fell over them, and they both looked up and grinned at her.
"Hermione," they chorused.
"Fred. George," Hermione said. She crouched down to see what they were doing on the ground. "Good morning. What are you working on?"
"Working on?" Fred said, putting a hand to his chest in horror. "What makes you think we would be working?"
"We are merely eating some candies," George said, gesturing to the colored sweets laid out in front of them. "Would you like a toffee?"
Hermione looked at them suspiciously. "Why would you need to hide to eat candies?"
"So Ron doesn't see them and eat them all," Fred said plaintively.
"When one is one of seven, Hermione," George said, advising her, "you learn to hide your sweets."
"Then why are you offering one to me?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows.
The twins grinned.
"Because we like you," George said easily.
"You're special," Fred said emphatically. "Our own little baby trickster in Slytherin."
Hermione rolled her eyes and huffed. "Fine. Give one here."
Fred handed over one of the colorfully wrapped sweets. If the twins thought she didn't catch their quick exchange of devious glances, they were sorely mistaken. She played ignorant, though, unwrapping the toffee as innocent as you please while her magic reached out for the candy, feeling for what lay there.
There was a curse on it, Hermione found – and not a kind one, judging from the feeling of the curse's net. Luckily, it wasn't a particularly strong curse, and Hermione wordlessly broke the enchantment on the candy before popping it into her mouth and chewing. The twins watched on eagerly, then, when it was clear nothing was happening, their expressions turned to confusion.
"It tastes a bit burnt," Hermione said. "Did your sugar overheat?"
"We didn't make the toffees—" George responded instinctively, but Fred elbowed him.
"How," Fred demanded, "are you doing that?"
"Doing what?" Hermione asked sweetly. "Picking out flavors in a candy?"
Fred looked frustrated. "No."
"Then what?" Hermione queried, innocent. "I thought these were just candies you were hiding from Ron."
George started laughing, while Fred looked aggravated. After a moment, Hermione took pity on them, and she spit out the candy.
"You're going to want better-quality candies to hex," she advised them. "Burnt sugar toffees aren't good."
"It's supposed to make your tongue grow," George said cheerily. "Generally, people aren't tasting them for very long."
Hermione snickered. "Engorgement charm?"
"Something like that," George admitted.
"How were you not affected?" Fred wanted to know. "We hexed all of these ones. There's no way—"
"I broke the curse on it," Hermione told them. She grinned. "It wasn't difficult, actually. I knew better than to trust food from you two."
The twins groaned, then looked at each other, considering.
"Most people aren't going to try and curse-break candies, are they?" George said. "I see no reason why this changes anything."
"We'll never be able to get Bill, then," Fred complained. "I want to be able to prank everybody."
Hermione tilted her head, considering.
"I bet I know a solution to your problem," she said. "But—"
"But what?" the twins chorused, eagerly.
"But," she said, eyes glinting, "you have to help me with my problem first."
