Familiar arms tugged Hermione out of the hallway and into a dark alcove. Shit. She’d been so careful the past few weeks, even her roommates didn’t know she’d been sneaking out for lessons…wait a second…
“How did you find me?” Hermione hissed.
Barring her exit, the Weasley twins grinned. “Map. Nicked it from Harry.”
She rolled her eyes. “Classic. And for what purpose?”
“To track you, of course,” they responded.
“Clever.”
“We thought so.”
“But,” she checked her watch, “it’s three in the morning! Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“Nope,” George said.
“Absolutely not,” Fred agreed.
Hermione sighed. She was way too tired for this, Theo had worked her into the ground tonight. “Just tell me then. Are you turning me in or just here to bother me?”
To her dismay, the twins exchanged matching grins. “Hermione, we are so glad you asked.”
She really should have prepared herself for…well, something. But alas, her hands were twitching from hours of occlumency training, and her mental processes were shot. So when Fred whipped out a blindfold and George grabbed her hand to drag her down the hallway, Hermione simply allowed it. There was nothing to be afraid of, really. It was just the Weasley twins. If anything, they were just showing her their newest product or something. Now, why it had to be in the middle of the night…she wasn’t sure. But she supposed her best course of action would be to comply easily. Then she could go to bed faster.
She felt herself being led around a corner and realized they were heading toward the stairs. Seriously? She did not want to do this blindfolded.
“George, just carry me will you? I’m bloody tired.”
Fred snickered and George released her hand. Carefully, he slid his arms beneath her knees and spine and lifted her up to his chest. He didn’t say a word. Hermione sighed in relief and leaned her head on his shoulder. The boy exhaled slowly, breath tickling her cheek.
He wasn’t moving. Hermione frowned. “George?”
“Hermione?” His voice sounded odd.
“Why aren’t we moving?”
“Oh.” He laughed lightly, and she felt him begin to descend the stairs. Merlin, the boy was weird sometimes.
“Hurry, George,” Fred whispered.
“Coming,” his twin chirped. Hermione fell silent. The rhythm of his movements was soothing; she counted his breaths. He held her carefully, and as it became clearer and clearer that the boys were taking her somewhere relatively far away, Hermione found herself nodding off.
“It’s alright, Mi,” George murmured in her ear. “I’ve got you. I’ll wake you when we’re there.”
And it really was a testament to her exhaustion that she raised no questions. She simply nodded and fell fast asleep.
Hermione awoke to George gently placing her feet on the ground. She pushed her heels back and sniffed at the air. “George?”
“Mhmm?” He was still holding onto her like he wasn’t sure she was awake enough to maintain her balance.
“Are we in the Forbidden Forest?”
Fred cackled. “I told you she was too smart. The blindfold was pointless.”
“It was just for the suspense, anyway. It’s not like she wouldn’t have been able to tell from the trees.”
“Not true, it could’ve been the Room.”
“Why on earth would we ask the Room of Requirement for a shit ton of trees?”
“Hell, I don’t know. You’re the one who brought it up.”
“Did not!”
“Did too.”
“Did not.”
“Did t—“
“Why are we in the Forbidden Forest?” Hermione asked calmly. She wasn’t afraid. She’d been here many times. Probably too many.
“George,” Fred said.
“On it,” George answered. He reached for the bit of cloth and tugged.
Hermione blinked. Alright. This certainly hadn’t been what she was expecting. They were in a clearing and her eyes caught on the shimmery evidence of a spell blocking them in. Warding, of some sort. And on the ground…she turned to Fred. “What fresh hell is this?”
Fred had the decency to look slightly abashed, but George bounced on his feet. “Guess.”
“I don’t have to guess, George. I have eyes,” Hermione said sharply. “My real question is why.”
“Well, you know we’ve been working on new products–”
“-and we figured what is a business without–”
“Living creatures!” Hermione hissed. She glared at them both, then looked back to the ground. “Tell me these are not…magical creatures.”
“Pets,” the twins said together.
“Pets,” she repeated. Godric’s beard in a braid. Hermione knelt down to get a better look at them. They were creatures, alright. Small, fuzzy, multicolored creatures. She thought she’d read of something like this before. Was it a puffskein? Gods, there were dozens of them. And the second Hermione lowered to her knees, they all came rushing forward with little snuffles of delight. A purple ball of fur jumped into her open hand. Hermione couldn’t help the smile twitching at her lips. They were excruciatingly adorable.
George dropped into a squat beside her and picked up one of the pink ones. “They’re cute, right?”
Fred skipped into the center and flattened himself with a crazed grin. Six or seven of the animals climbed on top of his chest.
Hermione carefully ran a finger over the little creature’s fur. It purred softly. “Yeah,” she finally agreed. “These are pretty darn cute. But how did you find them?”
Fred chuckled, and a few of the poofballs scattered. “We bought them, of course. To breed.”
Hermione jolted. “What?”
George nodded and scooped up a tiny blue one. “We bred these ourselves. Call them Pygmy Puffs. To cater to our future female customers, of course. Not for us.”
“Uh-huh,” Hermione said with a raised brow. George was smiling widely at the little pygmy puff in his hands. “Just for the females.”
George sighed happily. “Yeah. Just for the females.” Another puff hopped onto his shoe.
“Gods…what on earth are you going to do with them? They can’t stay here. This…this forest is deadly!” Hermione was distraught by the thought of the cute little things having to face those awful spiders. The purple pygmy in her hands had fallen fast asleep, trusting her unhesitantly. They would be ripped to pieces.
“Not to worry, Mi,” Fred called. He was now covered in close to twenty pygmies, all vying for his attention. “We’ve got it covered. We’re sending them to Black for a few weeks. He’ll keep them for us until we are…otherwise available.”
“Sirius?”
“Yeah. He said he’d keep Buckbeak in line and wouldn’t mind something else to do. Apparently, Grimmauld Place could use some color.”
Hermione nodded. It really could. Then she had another thought. “Oh my gods…Remus is going to hate you.”
“Yes,” George nodded, “we did not tell Lupin. And we would appreciate it if you kept this to yourself as well.”
Hermione laughed. This was going to be absolute torture for her ex-professor. He never liked animals much, except for dogs. And especially if something was small, he kept far away. He’d almost fainted the day Hermione suggested they all get a pet rabbit. “Alright. I won’t tell. If anything, it will be supremely entertaining. But how do you know it will only be a few weeks?”
The twins exchanged a glance. “Trust us.”
Hermione’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t like the sound of that. “That’s likely.”
George sighed. “You already know why, Hermione.”
Hermione picked up another pygmy and stroked its fur. She did know. It had been months now since she’d first suspected that the Weasley twins were planning on leaving Hogwarts. But now that she knew all about their upcoming business endeavors, she was certain that their departure was coming up quick. Looking around at the clearing, she realized that this would be a change for the worst. Hogwarts needed these ridiculous yet ingenious boys.
She looked at George and smiled. He was so gentle. No one would believe that the twins who caused the most damage to the school due to their pranks were actually saps for teeny tiny puffskeins.
George met her eyes and reached for her hand. Fred remained buried under fur; he was now talking quietly to a few of the pygmies.
She gave George’s hand a squeeze. “Thank you for showing me. They really are adorable.”
He nodded. “I know. I was the one who suggested it. Fred thought it would be too much work at first, but…look at them.”
She laughed. “Yeah. They’re wonderful. Top-seller, definitely.” Her smile faded. “George?”
“Hmm?”
“This isn’t you saying goodbye to me, is it?”
George shook his head, then reached down to pull one of the puffs off of his knee. “No. We’ll be here a few weeks yet. But soon.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
George seemed to notice something shift in her expression because he carefully corralled the puffs off of him and scooted closer. He reached forward, tucking a loose curl back behind her ear. “Mi?”
She peered at him. Something ached in her chest. “I’m going to miss you so much.”
George grinned. “You mean just me, right? Not Freddie?”
Hermione chuckled and swatted him on the arm. “You’re impossible. I was trying to be nice.”
He softened. “I know, Mi. I’m going to miss you too.” With that, George wrapped her in a hug that Hermione easily melted into. There was safety here that she was going to miss. It was nice having these two boys, older than her, always around to make her smile. She didn’t want that to go away.
“Oi!” Fred yelped from a few feet away. There was a bit of shuffling, and then he too dropped beside them and joined in on the hug. “Didn’t think you could do this without, yeah?”
Hermione laughed. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Fred.”
In the end, Hermione helped them re-ward the area to keep the pygmies safe for a few more hours, although the twins swore they had someone coming to pick them up that day. The three of them managed to make it back into the castle without being seen, but by the time they reached the Gryffindor common room, the sun was coming up. Hermione couldn’t really be mad, though. She could see why they were so excited to show her, why it couldn’t have waited. So, even though she was dead tired all the next day in her classes, she kept smiling to herself.
When Harry asked her why she looked so haggard the next morning, Hermione simply laughed and said, “Oh, you know. Homework. It’s always homework, Harry.”
Across the table, the Weasley twins laughed into their tea.