Summary:
Mrs. Weasley had a huge pile of laundry, and Hermione dug out a few pairs of socks, yellow and red, both with the Charlie Cannons logo on them.
With her usual conscientiousness, she matched them up, using a pile of folded sheets to provide cover, and in a flash, had them tucked unnoticed into the beaded bag.
The setting is the same as "I Want to Tell You Loudly"
Mrs. Weasley had a huge pile of laundry, and Hermione dug out some pairs of socks, yellow and red, all with the Charlie Cannons logo on them.
With her usual conscientiousness, she matched them together, using a pile of folded sheets to provide cover, and in a flash, she had the socks tucked into the beaded bag without anyone noticing.
When she was done she stood up and moved the neatly folded sheets so that it looked as if she was going to put the items back upstairs so that she could go back to her room and pack up what she wanted to take with her.
There was a soft applause overhead.
"It's really impressive!" A bandaged head popped out of the third-floor window. "But I'm not trying to praise your perfect technique. Ginny had this level before she was ten years old."
The witch felt a little embarrassed and couldn't help but tighten the small bag in her hand.
"Good morning George, I hope you are feeling better than yesterday."
She studied the blue shadows under the man's eyes and thought that the pain caused by dark magic might keep people up at night more than what was recorded in the books.
"Much better." The wounded man showed a mischievous expression, "By the way, if you want to go upstairs, I suggest you don't go in from the kitchen."
Hermione had never really liked the twins' pretentious way of speaking, but George was alone now, and everyone still remembered his bloody appearance a few days ago, so she was willing to be more patient than usual.
Fred and Mr. Weasley had gone to London early in the morning, and George, left alone at the Burrow, must have been bored to death.
"What happened to the kitchen?"
"Don't get me wrong, I didn't do anything to the kitchen, but Harry and Ginny were in the living room." George gave her a knowing look, "I just came out of there, and they... probably don't want to be disturbed."
The model student quickly understood the other party's hint, and her cheeks were slightly hot.
"Okay, then..." She wanted to say that she could go around the front door, but then she thought of the cramped space on the first floor of the Burrow, which was actually unavoidable.
"You can go to our room first and then go up the stairs." George stepped aside from the window. "Welcome, there has never been a young lady coming in here before."
Hermione only hesitated for a moment before she realized that there was something wrong with the other person's words.
"People can only Apparate to places they have been to or seen." She recited the content of the Apparition course in a serious manner. "Your bedroom obviously does not meet the requirements."
In fact, she had been in there once.
Before the start of the sixth grade, Harry once stayed in the twins' room. It was during that visit that she curiously rummaged through Fred and George's things and ended up getting hit by a telescope and got a black eye. It was only with the ointment Fred gave her that the bruises completely disappeared.
Although the other party did not ask any further questions at the time, and Fred also said that he did not remember leaving the telescope at the Burrow, Hermione secretly hoped that they did not know that she had done such a rude thing.
George's invitation made her suddenly feel a sense of crisis that her crime was exposed.
"I suppose you wouldn't mind a little help?"
George appeared beside her in a snap, and the stack of clean sheets rose more than ten feet in an instant, and disappeared into the window of the bedroom where he had just been.
"It's our turn now." He held out an arm for her to take. "You're welcome."
Hermione found that the room was not quite what she had guessed - two barely made beds took up most of the space, with a shared bedside table in the middle, a wooden wardrobe squeezed in the corner, a few cardboard boxes stacked next to it, and a few old posters of Zonko's Joke Shop pasted here and there on the wall.
Hermione found that this room was not much like what she had seen in the past - two barely made beds took up most of the space, with a shared bedside table in the middle, a wooden wardrobe squeezed in the corner, a few cardboard boxes stacked next to it, and a few old posters of Zonko's Joke Shop pasted here and there on the wall.
Unlike Ron's place, which was filled to the brim with stuff but couldn't find anything, this place had obviously been carefully cleaned up after being used as a storage room by Mrs. Weasley. There was no colorful paper, packaging boxes, flyers, and magic gadgets everywhere as she had imagined, only a faint smell of gunpowder in the air.
"When we moved to the theatre, we took away everything we could use," George said generously. "Later, my mother must have worked hard to clean it up. Now it's safer than Professor McGonagall's office."
If Hermione hadn't seen the power of the boxing telescope (it was only a half-finished product that they had overlooked), she might have believed what he said, but now she decided not to touch anything.
She used magic to fold the sheets that had just been scattered on the floor, while the smiling culprit just stood by and watched, not feeling embarrassed at all.
"A little slip within the permitted range, huh?"
Hermione didn't intend to blame him on this issue, but he took the opportunity to move the small bag of beads beside her, obviously realizing from just now that its weight and volume didn't match.
"It's so heavy, did you put Ron in there too?"
Ron had briefly mentioned to her and Harry about the twins' help in their plans to leave school - they had dressed up the ghoul in the attic to look like a patient with spatter pox in order to take Ron's place in the Ministry of Magic's investigation when he was no longer attending Hogwarts.
So George naturally knew that they were going to complete a secret mission, and he could guess that her sneaky behavior just now was to prepare for a long journey. However, the joke of carrying it with you was still a little too intimate for the boys and girls who had not yet revealed their feelings.
"I can't use such a sophisticated spatial extension spell yet." Hermione said politely, with two blushes on her cheeks. "Besides, I haven't thanked you for your help. Ron took me to see the ghouls."
"That's pretty true, isn't it?" George said, making a weird retching motion. "Fred suggested that it should stink a little more than normal, so that no one would want to get close to it, so it can be hidden longer."
"Thank you very much." Hermione said sincerely, her tone much more relaxed. People who share a common secret can always form an alliance quickly. "No one is better than you in this regard."
George unlocked the door for her, looking pleased and proud. "When Fred comes back, please tell him again. We made a bet, and Fred insisted that you would only say that we were not doing our job elsewhere."
His waving arm caused a poster near the door to fall down, revealing a photo frame that was hidden behind it. Hermione's eyes were attracted by the photo of a boy in a ball gown, toasting to the photographer.
The witch's attention was briefly diverted: "Why block it? People rarely see your individual photos."
Because that was almost impossible, Fred and George always appeared everywhere at the same time like conjoined twins, even when Filch gave them detention.
Before this, she had always thought that the escort mission a few days ago was the first time these two had acted separately, and today was the second time. A twin who was alone always gave people a very different feeling…
"Nothing." George said in a slightly unnatural voice.
He stretched out his hand and pointed at the person in the photo:
"This is me."
He pointed to a couple dancing in the background: "That's Fred."
Hermione then got a good look at the dancing couple, the boy had the same long flowing hair George had at the time, the girl's dark-colored arm was draped over his shoulders.
She nodded: "I remember, he invited Angelina."
"So this can't be considered a solo photo," George said.
"A photo of three people. I hope this isn't a reason for it to be ignored."
Hermione thought it was just a joke, so there was a photo of the twins in the theatre, which was enlarged and hung where everyone could see it as soon as they entered the door.
But George's expression became even stranger, which prompted her to look at the photo frame again. The boy in the photo was turning his head to look at his brother and his female companion. He was undoubtedly smiling, but there seemed to be some imperceptible bitterness in his fleeting profile.
Angelina could certainly have more than one suitor, George had known her as long as Fred, and if he wanted to ask her to dance, or even go further…
The smart man has instantly deduced several possibilities in his mind, including a dispute between the brothers and one of them eventually announcing its withdrawal.
"It's a shame, but it's actually a good photo," she said, trying to change the subject and pretend she was still joking.
George's finger still hovered over Fred's fluttering cape in the photo, as if he was going to touch it, but he finally moved it away and straightened the frame in an attempt to conceal his mistake.
Then he chuckled softly.
"Did Ginny teach you that you should control your expression when you have wild ideas?" His tone was full of teasing: "I should have let you go to disturb her and Harry."
Hermione was so embarrassed that she didn't know what to say: "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it."
George pushed the door open again, and when he looked at her again, he became serious. "Don't tell anyone, okay? Whether it's the photos or the rest...Fred always laughed at me for being narcissistic because of this, and he even put a poster on it. And that's what I told him."
"Of course! I can swear if necessary..." Hermione made a hasty promise.
"I believe it," said George calmly, "someone is about to go on adventures with my reckless brother and Harry, while evading capture and search. She'll soon find out how hard it is to look after two boys - Harry might be better, he has relatives like that, but Ron is much worse..."
He shrugged. "My brother never quite left the Asylum. You've got more courage than you give yourself credit for, you know. Keep your vows, they'll come in handy when you and Ron get together - hopefully he's not stupid enough to use up all your goodwill before then."
Hermione believed her face had turned red to her ears, but she still shook her head: "Loyalty and courage are two different things... You shouldn't confuse the two."
She tried to continue, trying to make up for her inappropriate thoughts just now: "And I think it's easy to fall in love with a beauty like Angelina. Almost everyone would do that."
She thought of the letter Krum had put in her hand when the students of Durmstrang said goodbye. Angelina witnessed the whole process and immediately made a good-natured joke to ease her embarrassment.
She was a thoughtful and kind girl.
"You're right." George turned his face away, looking exactly like the man in the photo. "Of course he deserves the best. I'm happy."
But his face didn't look happy at all.
Hermione's mind was working at high speed. She was talking about Angelina, but George was talking about him - her stored memories and guesses confirmed each other. She carefully organized her thoughts and straightened them into a line until shock appeared on her face again.
She opened her eyes even wider than before.
George was amused by her: "Didn't I just remind you? Remember to control your expression."
Hermione calmed herself down and wondered if she should leave before the secret was revealed.
George made no move to stop her. She could have just opened the door and gone upstairs, leaving the secret and its owner there, but an impulse prompted her to say, "I think... there's nothing wrong with that. You didn't even tell him anything."
"Because I can't." George stepped back, as if to hide in the shadows of the closet and disguise himself as a Boggart. "That would just mess everything up. If I can't stand my ground, what's Fred going to do? He'll just happily respond and won't care if anyone objects..."
His voice trailed off and became indistinct: "It will be dangerous, I know that for sure."
"Are you sure he feels the same way?"
George was silent for a moment.
"If I had allowed him to do that..." He slurred his words and gestured, "I think it's all - over now."
"But there is no past for you."
Hermione pointed this out as gently as possible. "No one can control whether they love or not, and who they should love. Since you haven't changed your mind, how can you be sure that he has completely given up?"
"That's exactly what I'm worried about. You may have been too lenient today." George used a sticking spell to stick the poster back on the wall. "I thought you would scold us like before and help me to make up my mind."
Hermione forced a smile, "That wouldn't be fair to you, or any other girl who falls in love with you."
She had a deep suspicion that the argument was pointless, that once all that had been hidden was revealed, it would become clear that there was something different about George and Fred than there was about the other twins, something that perhaps they themselves had not realised was so obvious.
"I have reasons why I must do this."
George looked better than before, and as he opened the door and walked her to the stairs he resumed the ambiguous tone the twins loved: "Please, it's not right to keep a young lady in a room too long."
"Then how are you going to face your own heart?" Hermione walked a few steps upstairs and couldn't help talking to herself.
She thought she would not be heard, but George, who had already started down the stairs, stopped suddenly, and their eyes briefly met again through the banister.
George touched his chest.
"It's no more complete than a piece of paper from a firework. Just stuff it into any firework tube and it'll be just right for the wedding tomorrow." He raised his lip slightly. "Perhaps Ron would be happy to help me throw it into the crowd."
His nonchalant voice disappeared downstairs, as if everything he had revealed before was just a harmless joke.
END