Chapter 2
Fred and George followed the trio through the portrait and down to the Great Hall to do some damage control. The least they could do was keep an eye on things and make sure Hermione didn't do something uncharacteristically... stupid.
The Great Hall looked like it would on every other morning, even though there was an awful amount of cheer in the air, along with the owls sending love letters back and forth. At least it was not raining confetti like it had four years ago when Gilderoy Lockhart was still a professor at Hogwarts. Looking up at the staff table, the students could see Slughorn humming happily and Dumbledore making the salt and pepper dispensers waltz with each other, much to the misgivings of professors Snape and McGonagall as Flitwick constructed a miniature dance floor with his wand. Fred and George sat down, still with that sinking feeling in their stomachs.
"How are you feeling, Hermione?", George said off-handedly, trying to sound casual. Hermione made a face. "Like I am surrounded by people who don't take their education very seriously. Good thing we have Slughorn first, he always takes his time with his breakfast." Hermione turned back to her porridge, but Fred and George's expressions brightened a little. Potions in first period! Surely there must be a way to remedy the situation! Of course they couldn't accompany the students into class, but Harry and Ron... might find a way to fix things. The twins just had to confess to one of them first.
"You did WHAT?", Ron exclaimed, after they had dragged him away on "family business", sending Harry and Hermione ahead to potions. "Well we didn't INTEND for it to be her", Fred said, which only infuriated Ron more. "You meant to make me, your own brother, run amok!" "Yep", the twins replied in unison, without even the slightest of regrets, because "it would have been perfectly harmless if it had been you, Ron. Everybody would have known it was nothing but a good joke!" Ron glowered at them, clearly they had a very different sense of humour. Fred hastily picked up where George left off. "But with Hermione, you see, she already might have shown certain signs of... affection towards our mark, love potion or not. She already was halfway in love." "Really?", Ron asked incredulously, "with who?" "Oh, Ron...", the twins replied, "sometimes you really are blind."