Disclaimer: All of these characters belong to J. K. Rowling.
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Chapter 3:  At The Burrow


Summer at the Burrow was a casual affair. Mr. Weasley and Percy worked long hours at the ministry while Mrs. Weasley bustled happily around the house. The twins were rarely seen out of their room, much to the chagrin of Mrs. Weasley who was worried about another resurgence of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products. And Ron absolutely refused to speak to Hermione. At mealtimes he wouldn't even look at her. For the first couple of days she had tried to apologize again and again but to no avail. Things were starting to look up last Thursday. When Ron passed her the butter he had made eye contact for a moment. This fragile truce was soon ended, however, when an owl from Viktor arrived later that evening. Hermione finally gave up trying to make peace with Ron after that. "Ron can't be mad just because Viktor writes to me" she thought. In his last letter, Harry had advised Hermione to just give Ron time. 

"He's hurt and angry, but you know Ron, just let him work off some steam and he'll come to his senses." 

"Well that's certainly easy for him to say, he's not staying at Ron's house" Hermione thought miserably. However Hermione certainly hoped that Harry was right. Even though she missed Ron terribly, she decided to try and keep out of his way, staying up in Ginny's room and only appearing at meal times. After a week of this Hermione had already finished all of the homework that had been assigned for summer break from her teachers. She was hoping that her parents would come home soon, she loved the Burrow, but with Ron avoiding her, it wasn't the same. She didn't think that her parents would be returning any time soon though; their last letter hadn't been very optimistic. Now the only things that Hermione had to look forward to were the owls from Viktor that came every couple of days. The letters didn't always make her feel better though. She knew that Viktor loved her, but there was a nagging worry in the back of her mind, an apprehension that she didn't understand and couldn't place. Bulgaria had been so beautiful, Viktor so sweet and caring, she had been in another world. But she didn't know if she wanted to be in another world, so far from everything else that she loved. Sometimes she felt so distant and cut off. Lost in thought Hermione absentmindedly tugged on a loose thread attached to Ginny's yellow quilt. There was a great deal of yellow in the room. Hermione assumed that it was supposed to be cheery and happy, but at the moment it only helped to remind her about how miserable she was without Ron. Sighing deeply, she pulled a book out of her bag and started to read.

There was knock on Ginny's door, the twins had taken to knocking recently after George accidentally popped in on Hermione in the bathroom, not that he had seen anything, but it had been a close enough call to make them both blush. After this incident the twins seemed to move more cautiously around the house. When they realized that Hermione was in a perfect state of attire they both came into the room. 

"C'mon Hermione, you've been locked up in this room for a week now, you're almost as bad as Percy", Fred said in a pleading voice.

"Exactly like Percy," continued George "work, bedroom, work, bedroom, work, bedroom."

"We should have his things sent to the office, then he'd have more time to brown-nose" Fred said with a devious look.

"I know" George agreed, "just think of all the time he loses in the apparation process, whole seconds on end, down the drain."

"We really would be doing him a favor," grinned Fred, obviously thinking it over.

"Hey Fred, do you reckon Mum has any old boxes? We could go pack for him right now" George started to proceed to the door when Fred called him back.

"George wait, don't forget, we're on a mission." 

Hermione, who had started reading her book again, paused and looked up, suspicion written all over her face. "W...What mission?" She asked cautiously. 

"Well," Fred began, "as we were saying, it has come to our attention that you have been spending all of your time up here in Ginny's room reading." 

"Right" smiled George, "And this will not be tolerated in our home." 

The twins looked at each other, their grins got a little wider and Fred said "we've decided to make it our mission that you have fun here at the Burrow." 

"And fun does not include books!" They said this in unison and before Hermione could even respond, George had snatched Durmstrang: a beginning from her hands. He looked at her bookmark and grinned.

"Aww.... Look at little Hermi and her boyfriend."

Hermione snatched it away from him looking annoyed. She placed the picture between the pages and set the book on the desk. "So why this sudden interest in my entertainment? And anyway, I thought you two were busy restocking the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."

At these words both twins paled ever so slightly and Fred moved swiftly to the cracked door and pushed it shut. In a loud voice he called out, "Hermione, you know that once our Mum has told us not to do something, we listen." 

While he was saying this George had moved to the window, "Don't worry Fred, she's out in the garden." Both twins looked visibly relieved about this and Hermione couldn't help but grin. 

"Well if you must know Hermione", Fred said in a hushed voice, "Mum has decided that we're not to spend 20 minutes in our room straight unless we're sleeping and even then we have to keep the door open."

"You know Fred, it's almost like she doesn't trust us". George complained with a pained look on his face.

With George's words, Hermione could no longer contain herself. She sat down hard on the bed and burst into laughter. Fred and George both did their best to look affronted. 

"Well I'm glad that you think this funny!" Fred snapped, but his heart just wasn't in it, he too was having a difficult time keeping a straight face. 

"Seriously though, Hermione, we worry about you" George had come to sit next to her, "it's not healthy to stay up here all day just because a certain red-haired brother of mine is being a jerk".

Fred suddenly looked very worried, "Umm... Hermione, you aren't going to cry, are you"? For Hermione's eyes had started to go dewy. George's words had brought in the harsh realization about how much it bothered her that Ron was so angry. She wanted to make things right but couldn't think how. In an instant everything seemed so futile. She shook her head quickly and George put his arm around her. 

"Hermione, crying is kind of the opposite reaction of what we're working for here."

"Yeah" said Fred, " hey, I know let's go play chess, I hear you're bad at that Hermione and we at least deserve a chance of beating you at something. And just so you know, we do accept bets."

Hermione smile widely; it was the first time that she had felt really happy since she had left Viktor. With Fred on one side and George on the other she was led from the room. She couldn't help feeling as they walked down the stairs that things were finally starting to look up.