The law says.....

After the extraordinary date the night before, Hermione doesn't really know what to do with herself.  Ginny finally convinces her to go shopping in muggle London.

"Do you think Harry would like this?" Ginny asked holding up a lacey red bra and knickers.

"How would I know? He's your partner,  what does he usually like?" Hermione replied.

"Doesn't normally care, what about Dean or Seamus?" The ginger asked.

"Once again how would I know? Which of your brothers would like this?" Hermione countered as she held up a black satin number.

"Ewww, please don't make me think of my brothers getting excited." Ginny grimaced.

"Well that's how I feel about Harry. He is like a brother to me. But his favourite colour is green." She smiled.

After another hour they had both lingerie, enough for their first nights with each partner. The thought still scared Hermione but thus was one way she could take control and that calmed her slightly.  She only had to think how much she wanted Charlie and the thought of sex wasn't as scary.

They grabbed some lunch then headed to a muggle bookshop.  Hermione wandered, hoping ginny wouldn't pay attention to where she was looking. First she wandered the fantasy section, picked up a few books for herself and some with dragons for Charlie.  Then she looked to see if she could find books on sex. The only ones  she could find was the kamu sutra and yoga for sex. So put both in her basket, making her way to the checkout before Ginny saw.

The wandered into a few more shops but their bags were getting heavy so they popped into an alley and apparated back to the burrow.  She quickly ran to Ginnys room and hid her purchases. She exited and went to go downstairs, Fred stopped her on the landing.

"Afternoon Hermione,  good shopping trip?" He asked.

"Yes was lovely,  got some things I really needed. Nice to have a day with just Ginny. Did you do much today?" She asked in return.

"George and I have been trying to get a lie potion sorted, kinda the opposite of the veritisium, could be a funny prank. But we cannot seem to get it right, we made one even stronger than veritisium,  George spilled all his truths without me asking, I had to lock him away for a day. The latest batch had me talking in limericks, that was fun to be honest, we are keeping that one and will work on it whilst we try to figure out where we are going wrong." Fred explained.

"Can I see? I've always fancied seeing how you two work things out. We will have to see if we can make a proper working potion lab in the new house." She said cheerily.

"Of course, I would love your insight, George has gone for a walk to let off some steam. Bill showed me a lab in the basement which needs a good clean up, there are some questionable stains but it should work okay." Fred told her as he guided her into his room.

She hadn't been in their room much, especially since they were adults,  there was a cauldron set up at the back it was letting off purple and blue vapor. She walked to the back a peered in carefully, it was navy viscous liquid.  Next to it was their notes on veritisium and each batch they tried and the outcome. So looked at their notes, almost forgetting Fred was there.

"This is really amazing! I love the detail you put in. I imagine there are lots of possibilities from the notes you've got here. The limerick one would be great for parties. The one where it makes you speak another language is fantastic! I would love to work on that if you'd let me, maybe see if I can get it to work on a specific language,  would be useful for diplomats." Hermione exclaimed.

"Thank you, of course, you can work on whatever potions you want when we move. Do you have any idea what could make it work?" Fred wondered.

"There are so many possibilities and I have a few ideas, but they may just give a random effect like yours have.  But you have only tried changing ingredients or amount of ingredients.  Why not change the direction you stir, it's simple but it's very critical to the process." She pondered.

"That's genius!!! Let's give it a try." Fred said with glee as he produced another cauldron from under his bed and set it up.

He set up the ingredients and set to work. Hermione sat on his bed reading his notes. After half an hour he sat down beside her.

"Anymore observations you would like to suggest? Harry tells me you were fantastic at potions." Fred smiled.

"Not right now, want to see if this works, but I might be spending a lot of my free time in your lab. Harry is only saying that because he copied off of me." She laughed.

They chatted for the next few hours about their time at hogwarts and he told her a lot of the mischief he and George got upto that she didn't know about. Soon the potion was ready.

"I'm going to take this. Take this bezoer,  just in case." Fred told her matter of factly,  filling up a vial.

"Wait you think it could be dangerous? Have you ever needed this?" She pleaded,  shaking slightly.

"We take risks but we are not fools. No we've not needed it but I'd rather it was close. " He explained taking her hands.

Taking a mouthful of the potion he nodded at her.

"Who's your favourite brother?" She asked with a grin.

"Percy." Fred laughed.

"Could be true, I don't know. Who was your first kiss? " She asked slowly.

"Mcgonagall." Fred stated without hesitating, then burst out laughing.

"Oh I hope that's not true." Hermione giggled,  thinking of her next question.  She needed something she knew the answer to.

"What do you do for a living?" She asked.

"A ballerina" He chuckled, walking over to a cabinet and drinking a potion.

Assuming it was antidote for veritisium and wanted to know if it worked on this too, she asked another question. 

"Have you every tried polyjuice potion?" She asked.

"Yes twice, once to impersonate Harry when we were helping him leave his childhood home and once myself and George took some with each others hair in it, wanting to see if anyone could tell.  Only Ginny could." Fred beamed.

"Only you two would try that!! Looks like it worked, still needs refining, depends what you want it for, those were hilarious answers, from a joking point of view that was genius but if you want to be able to lie convincingly, which I hope you don't  that won't do." Hermione pondered.

"You are wonderful!! I honestly thought we would be working on it for months before calling it a dead end." Fred cried as he rushed forward and hugged her.

He kissed her on the cheek,  pulling back he looked her deep in the eyes, leaning forward slowly giving her time to pull away, connecting their lips when she didn't.

She could feel how hesitant he was but as the seconds went by he got more confident and deepened the kiss, laying his hands on her lower back.

Her mind was blank, just enjoying the kiss and not thinking until her ran a thumb over her cheek,  just like Charlie did the day before.  She jerked back, tears I her eyes.

"Fred I'm so sorry!! I.. I didn't.... I'm sorry." She cried as she turned dashing out the room.

"Hermione,  what's wrong?" He called after her with perplexed expression.

Not looking back she ran down the stairs, fully crying now. Not bothering to stop when people called out to hear, she didn't even know who called. She just kept running.

Not stopping until she was outside and a good bit from the burrow. She broke down completely,  her knees gave out and cried into her hands. All she could think of was how could she be so cruel to Charlie?

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even hear footsteps come up behind her. Suddenly there was a pair of strong arms around her.

"Hermione what's wrong love? What happened?" Charlie asked in a gravelly voice.

"I'm so sorry Charlie,  I didn't mean to hurt you, it just happened.  I feel awful.  I'm crazy about you, please forgive me." She cried between sobs.

The warm arms wrapped around her let go, she knew then that he couldn't forgive her. Instead she was surprised when she found him kneeling in front of her, taking her hands.

"Love, did you kiss Fred?" He asked stoically.

"Yes, I'm sorry." She replied not looking at him, she didn't want to see the hurt in his eyes.

"Love, why is this wrong?"

"Because  you and I.... because  I have... because. " She managed to get out before another round of tears.

Charlie hugged her from the front, she felt another pair of arms around her from behind. She tried to twist to see who it was. Charlie's arms stopped her.

"Shh love its Fred. Neither of us are mad at you." Charlie soothed, kissing her head.

"You're not? How can you not be be, I kissed you both, you're brothers. We spent an amazing date together and the next day I kiss your brother, you should hate me."

"I could never hate you. We did have an amazing date and yes an amazing kiss.  But with this law I never expected you to be faithful to me." Charlie sighed.

"The law.. I forgot, I got caught up in my feelings for you. I felt like I was cheating. " She admitted.

" I have feelings for you too  but you are allowed to kiss all my brothers, strangly I encourage it. We need to make this work and you need to have a relationship with them too. It's okay for you to have feelings for all of us." Charlie stated.

"I don't want to hurt you." Hermione sobbed.

"I'm only hurting if you're hurting love. I'm guessing myself and Fred are the only two you've kissed?" He asked.

"Ron too, but that was out of I dunno guilt or familarity or something other than want."

"So you wanted to kiss me?" Fred asked from behind her, she had completely forgot he was there.

"Yes, it was lovely until you touched me and your hand was too smooth,  I realised that I was cheating on Charlie and I panicked. "

"Not cheating. I know this hard Hermione,  you've been brought up to be with only one person, but now your being told you have to be with six, brothers at that, I cannot imagine how hard that is. But you did nothing wrong by kissing me. Okay? " Fred pleaded.

"Okay." She replied, slowly calming down.

"Love you need to tell us if something is upsetting you, please dont run away, if it had been anyone but my brother I would have assumed he hurt you. We cannot help if you don't talk to us." Charlie said as he hugged her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise how overwhelming this all would be. It's hard to not feel guilty for kissing more than one of you." She admitted.

"I know,  I know, wish we could help with that. We all want you to be happy. Look at me love. " Charlie pleaded as he gently raised her head.

He then placed a gentle slow but loving kiss on her lips.

"I know this is scary and confusing but we are in it together. " He said placing more kisses on her lips. "Why don't we have a carefree evening. Some drinks and games. Sound good?" Charlie asked.

"Yes that does sound good." She sighed in relief.

"Okay I'll gather my siblings and see if Ginny wants to invite her matches. Get to know them too. But let me make it clear if you want kiss or cuddle or hold the hand of any of your husbands to be that is okay, more than okay it's encouraged." Charlie told her, helping her up.

Once she was standing, she turned and saw Fred had been crying too.

"I'm sorry...." she began.

"No, nothing to be sorry about  it shows you care about us and our feelings.  It's commendable.  Dinner will be ready soon. Let's head back." Fred said, taking her hand whilst Charlie took the other.

They walked back slowly giving her time to pull herself together.

Walking into the Burrow there was lots of concerned eyes, but with a small shake of his head Charlie asked them not to say anything.

Soon they were all sitting down to a delicious meal, discussing the plans for the evening.