Whatever Happens

It had been a relatively quiet afternoon at The Burrow until one of the twins dashed through the living room, laughing wildly. Harry was hot on his heels, half his face covered in what appeared to be chunky vomit, as Ron, Ginny, and Hermione watched amusedly.

“FRED!”

“That isn’t Fred, Harry, that’s George,” said Hermione matter-of-factly. Lowering her book, she peered at him. “And what on earth is that on your face?”

A furious Harry stopped and turned to glare at Hermione, momentarily forgetting his desire to hex the twin’s face off.

“How can you tell the difference? They’re bloody identical twins!”

Hermione bent over her book again, a curtain of hair falling forwards to hide her face.

“There are differences, Harry. You’d notice if you paid a bit more attention. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m trying to read.”



“So we’ve got six orders of Extendables from Seamus, two orders of the Blaze Boxes from Colin Creevey—”

“What Finnigan wants with an extra twelve pairs of ears, I’d like to know.”

“—and, blimey, five hundred orders of Shield Hats from the Ministry! Looks like we’re on their side now, George!”

“Ah, don’t say that. It’s business, innit? Nothing personal, eh?”

“Oh, hold on, I’ve missed something. Hermione wants a jar of the Bruise Remover as well.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ve taken care of it.”

Fred looked at his twin quizzically.

“You’ve taken care of it? How?”

“Ran into her in Hogsmeade the other day.”

“And you just so happened to have an extra Bruise Remover on you, did you?”

“I had a bunch of orders of Dung’s, but he never showed. Stupid git was probably hoping we’d send Verity to deliver them – hexing her and grabbing the goods without paying wouldn’t have been too hard a task. Sorry, mate, I should’ve crossed Hermione’s name off the list. I’ll remember next time.”

“Don’t worry about it. Glad you managed to pass her her order.”

George didn’t particularly like the way Fred was grinning at him.

“Hey, d’you remember we had a bunch of the Nosebleed Nougat prototypes lying around?”

“Yeah?”

“I slipped one to Harry the other day.”

Fred began to laugh.

“What was the problem with those again?”

“Instead of blood, you had nougat coming out your nose,” said George, a wicked grin on his face.

They both spent a good few minutes laughing – George at the memory, Fred at the very thought.



“Ron!”

Ron looked up from watching his knight pummel Harry’s bishop. Ginny stood before him, looking agitated. Harry and Hermione looked up as well, curious.

“What’s up?”

“Have you any idea what’s up with George? He hasn’t replied my owl in ages. Fred’s owl is on a long-distance delivery, so I can’t get to him either!”

“Nope, sorry,” said Ron, silently egging his knight on. It succeeded in knocking over the bishop, and he pumped his fist in victory. “Yes!”

“Do either of you know?” asked Ginny exasperatedly, turning to the other two.

“Sorry, no,” said Harry, shaking his head.

“I…think he mentioned something about his owl feeling under the weather,” said Hermione. “He had to take him to Eeylops.”

“That explains it,” Ginny huffed. “Thanks, Hermione.”

“No problem.”

Ginny made to leave the common room, but stopped and looked at the older girl curiously.

"How did you know that?"

"Watch out, Harry, he's going to get your queen!" Hermione cried, pointing at the chess board.



“Hey, dad.”

“George! And to what do I owe this pleasure? Some tea for you?”

“No, thanks, I’ll just be here for a mo’. I was wondering if I could borrow Errol for a bit. I just need to send something to Hogwarts.”

“He’s all yours. What happened to Morrie?”

“Caught a bug of some sort. That’s what the bloke at Eeylops told me, anyway. He’s going to be there for a while, so in the meantime, I’ll just enlist the help of good ol’ Errol here.”

“Ah, good thinking. Writing to Ginny?”

“Yeah. But since he’ll be flying all the way to Hogwarts anyway, might as well deliver a few letters together.”

“Who else? Not too many, I hope. Poor Errol’ll look like he’s at death’s door when he comes back.”

“Nah, just Hermione.”

“Ah. Pretty girl, that one.”

George shot his father a look.

“Yeah. I’ll just be sending my stuff now. Can’t stay long, Fred and I have business to attend to.”

“It’s going well, I hope? The business?”

“Smashingly.”



“Hey.”

“Hi.”

Hermione stepped into the twin’s embrace without hesitation. They stayed like that for a while, temporarily oblivious to the cold around them. Hogsmeade was dusted in a layer of snow; while it provided a pretty backdrop, the surrounding temperature was far from desirable.

Hermione shivered a little, and George held her tighter, pulling her as close as she could get to himself. He tried to cover as much of the small body as possible with his arms, wrapping them around her the best he could. She hummed her gratitude.

“I’ve missed you,” he murmured, his cheek resting against her hat. She murmured something unintelligible into his jacket, which he took to mean something along the same lines. “It’s been too long. Morrie’s still at Eeylops, and we haven’t gotten our fireplace connected to the Floo network yet.”

She looked up at him with imploring eyes.

“Soon, I hope?”

“Soon. That’s a promise.”

There was a brief pause, during which George touched his lips to her forehead.

“Hermione?”

“Hmm?”

“How long are we gonna keep this secret?”

“I don’t know. Are you ready to tell people yet?”

"I think so. In any case, I think Fred and dad know."

“Your dad? I get how Fred picked up on it, but your dad?”

“Ah, he can be surprisingly perceptive at times. Pity it doesn’t seem to work with mum. It’s a bit of a waste, really, him being able to pick up on his son’s romantic interests but not being able to tell when his wife’s upset with him till it’s far too late.”

Hermione giggled a bit.

"What about you?" asked George, growing serious again. "Are you ready?"

“I can’t decide,” she replied, a blush colouring her pink cheeks further. “I think Harry and Ginny suspect something, though.”

“So," he said slowly, "since the cat’s mostly out of the bag anyway, shall we just go along with it?”

“Might as well,” she replied. “I suppose whatever happens, happens.”

“It’ll happen, all right,” he grinned, winking at her.

Before she knew it, he’d taken her by the hand and was pulling her along to walk in the snow. It looked like they were headed to The Three Broomsticks. After a good deal of tromping through the powdery blankets, they reached the door of the pub, and George bowed in an exaggerated ‘after you’ motion. Hermione laughed a little and stepped inside, eager to get out of the cold.

George entered after her, and they both blinked their eyes, getting used to the dimmer light after the blinding whiteness of the snow. Spotting a few of their friends, George called to them in greeting.

“Hey! Hey, Lee! Harry! Ron!”

And then, in front of the whole of The Three Broomsticks, George grabbed Hermione and kissed her full on the mouth.

As he pulled away, Hermione stared at him, horrified and dazed.

“What did you do that for?!”

“Sorry, love, I've been wanting to tell them for ages," he grinned. "Whatever happens, happens, right?”