Prologue

1993

A side effect of frequent time travel is headaches — Mt. Everest sized headaches. Professor McGonagall said they should go away when my body got used to the constant back and forth, but it really wasn't happening fast enough for me. They made me cranky, which made Harry and Ron ask questions. And I was tired of being cranky and fielding questions that made me crankier, so I was in the library hiding from everyone. I stared blankly at the divination text in front of me, rubbing circles on my temples as I desperately tried to soak in some information. I might have hated the subject but that didn't mean I was willing to fail it.

"Well, hello Miss Granger," a voice said as a shadow fell across my table. I looked up to find a Weasley twin standing across from me, giving me a playful smirk.

"Hi, Fred," I said, forcing a smile.

He smiled brightly. "George, actually."

I frowned up at the twin. "You're Fred."

"My sweater would beg to differ." He pointed at the "G" on his chest with a quirked eyebrow.

I winced as my head gave another pound. "I know you and George find your switch days quite hilarious and I usually don't mind playing along, but right now I have a truly terrible headache and ridiculously stupid divination facts to memorize and I just don't have the energy to pretend you're George, Fred." He blinked at me. My head throbbed. "Sorry." I dropped my eyes back down to the text and started rubbing my temples again. After a moment of quiet, the chair across from me was pulled out and Fred sat.

"I'm sorry your head hurts," he said quietly.

"I'm sorry I was rude. My filter seems to have a headache-sized hole in it."

"I get it." Another beat of silence as I rubbed my temples, praying for the pain to go away. "How did you know it was me?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"My own mother can't tell the difference most days."

"I'm aware."

"I'm just saying, the fact that you can do that after only knowing us for three years is…"

My head throbbed again. "Is what?"

I felt a nudge on my arm and looked up to find Fred holding out a small vile full of liquid. "Impressive." For some reason the smile he was giving was making me want to blush.

"What's that?"

"Headache cure. I summoned it before I sat down."

"Oh." I took the vile, our fingers brushing. "Thanks." I downed the liquid quickly. Fred's smile grew. My headache disappeared almost instantly. "Thank you," I repeated, already feeling a million times lighter. Magic really was incredible.

"If I give you the secret to making it through divination, will you give me the secret to how you tell us apart?"

I folded my arms, appraising him with my now, thankfully, clear mind. "You know the secret to getting through divination?"

"You have to promise before I give anything up, Hermione."

I smiled at the playful glint in his eyes. "I promise to tell you how I do it, though I won't promise you'll find the answer useful."

A spark flashed in his eyes, but he smiled. "To make Trelawney happy, all you need to do is make horrible stuff up."

I raised an eyebrow. "Make horrible stuff up?"

"Tell her all the ways you could die. It's as easy as an imagination."

"I'd be the first to tell you divination is guess work and luck, but there is this book they made me buy full of information that I'm supposed to be able to regurgitate."

"Yeah, you can pretty much ignore that." Now both my eyebrows were raised. He chuckled. "I know. Not your style. But seriously, Trelawney doesn't care about any of that. I'm actually not sure she really knows any of it herself. She thinks doom and gloom are around every corner, so just tell her that's what you see too and she'll give you an Outstanding every time. Your imagination's the limit."

I sighed, looking back down at the text. I knew he was probably right. I just didn't see myself doing very well at that. "My imagination is limited."

"I think you're better than you think you are." He was giving me that smile that made me want to blush again. "Now your end of the deal."

I shifted a little. "It's really not all that great of a secret."

"You promised."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to think it's going to be something other people can use. It's not that kind of trick."

He cocked his head, eyes studying me. "Is that why you think I won't like it?" I shrugged uncomfortably. "Hermione, I just want to know how you do it. Hardly anyone even bothers to try telling us apart, even our friends. I'd like to know."

I bit my lip. "You can't laugh." His lips twitched like they wanted to laugh at even the suggestion. I sighed, giving in to the inevitable. "I just know you're Fred."

"Hermione, I promise I won't laugh if it's really that bad."

"No, that's it. That's my trick."

He frowned. "I don't get it."

"That's what I meant earlier. It's not really a trick. It's more like… intuition. I've just always known that you're Fred."

He looked incredulous. And disappointed. "And George is George?"

I shook my head, wincing slightly. "Not really." He raised an eyebrow. "It's more like, you're Fred and he's… not-Fred."

Fred's eyebrow slowly lifted. "You know which one is which because George isn't enough like me?" He sounded like he didn't believe me.

"Basically." He searched my face, looking more surprised by the second.

"But we look exactly alike. How can you tell just by looking at us?"

"You don't look exactly alike. Not to me."

Fred was staring at me like he'd never seen me before. "Because I look like Fred."

I nodded, glad he was getting it. "I figured out pretty easily you're Fred. After that, I know which one is George because he's the one that's not you." I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "I know it's weird, but—"

"It's not weird." He cleared his throat, looking down at his hands. "It's, uh, it's kind of nice."

I felt my shoulders relax. "Yeah?"

His warm blue eyes met mine. "Yeah."

"Hey, Forge! There you are," George came around a bookcase with a bright smile on his face. "I see you found our favorite bookworm."

"Hi, George," I said, unsure how I felt after that moment with Fred.

"Uh, I'm—" Fred stood, cutting off his brother.

"She knows we swapped," he said.

"Why did you tell her?"

"I didn't. She already knew. She called today one of our 'switch days.'"

George frowned at me. "How did you know?"

"I'll tell you later, Gred. See you around, Hermione." Fred was pushing George away from the table. I wanted to tell them it was okay if they stuck around for a bit, but Fred was suddenly in a hurry to get away.

"Thanks for the help," I called after him. Fred turned to give me that smile before disappearing around a bookcase.