Old Books and Firecrackers: Chapter I

A Harry Potter Fanfic

Year 5

Fred was sitting in the common room playing exploding snap with George when Ron came in.

“Hey, Ron. How did class go?”

Ron shrugged and dropped his bag on the couch. He and Harry sat down together and began their homework. “It was fine, I guess.”

“How was your first Divination class?” George asked without looking up from the game. Hermione snorted from the corner where she sat working. Fred grinned. It appeared she had already gotten Trelawney’s measure.

Ron glanced nervously at Harry. “Professor Trelawney said Harry’s teacup had the grim.”

George laughed. “Yeah, she said the same thing about a kid in our year and he’s fine.”

“So you did tea leaves today?” Fred asked. “See anything interesting?” Harry and Ron both shook their heads.

Hermione slammed her book shut. “Of course they didn’t. According to Professor Trelawney, divination only works for certain people. How do you know those people aren’t con artists?”

“I imagine when enough coincidences happen–” George began.

“But that’s just it!” Hermione said, leaning forward in her chair. “They’re just coincidences! There’s no proof anyone really ‘saw’ those things. It could all be made up!” Fred wanted to argue but George kicked him. Ron changed the subject a moment later asking about the potion-making properties of lacewing flies and the conversation never returned to divination.

On the way to their dormitory that night, George nudged his twin. “Too bad about Ron.”

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see about Ginny.” Fred smirked. “You think we should tell Hermione?”

“She’d never believe us.”

Fred nodded. “That’s why I want to tell her.” George laughed.

George nudged Fred and pointed to Harry eating silently while Ron and Hermione chattered about the Hogsmeade trip coming up. “You think he’s okay?” George asked when they left the Great Hall.

Fred shrugged. “He’s disappointed. It’s not fair for him to have to stay behind just cause his aunt and uncle are gits, is it? Hey, what if we told him about the passage? That would probably cheer him up.”

“But someone might see him,” George said. “If we tell him about it, we risk it getting discovered, unless . . .”

“You think we should give him the map?”

George shrugged. “We’ve gotten a lot of use out of it. It would be fair to pass it on.”

“True.”

When they got back to their dormitory during their break, Fred pulled the Marauder’s Map out of his trunk and laid it on the bed. “I’m going to miss it.”

George sighed. “Yeah. I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” He tapped the map with his wand and the two watched the dots move as the younger students ran to their classrooms.

“I feel like we should do something to celebrate our last night with it,” Fred said.

“I agree, but what?”

Fred stroked his chin. “Hmm. Probably something involving Filch’s office. And dungbombs.”

“I don’t know how you come up with these ingenious ideas.” George started to fold up the map and froze. “Fred! Something’s wrong with the map.”

Fred peeked over his brother’s shoulder. “What d’you mean?”

“Look! It says Hermione is in Ancient Runes here, but then it says she’s also in Defense Against the Dark Arts over here with Harry and Ron.”

Fred frowned. “Weird. It must have made a mistake.”

“But it’s never done that before, has it?” Fred shook his head. George shrugged. “Oh well. I guess it’s not our problem anymore, is it?”

The boys gave Harry the map the next day and soon returned home for the holidays. When they got back to school, the two boys saw Hermione on their way to class. Fred was about to say hi when she ducked into an alcove. Fred raised his eyebrows at George, who shrugged. They ran to catch up.

“Look who’s being sneaky,” George said when they found her. She spun around with eyes wide and a hand clasped around a gold necklace.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She squeezed the necklace tighter.

“Cute necklace,” Fred said. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a jewelry lover.” He reached out to touch the chain. Her face grew stony and she pushed past them both, running down the hall.

“Don’t think she liked that much,” George said.

“Clearly.” Fred wondered what was so special about the necklace. It wasn’t until later that night that he figured it out.

He was climbing into the common room when he overheard Ron talking to Harry. “There’s no way she’s taking all those classes! She has three at the same time every morning! It’s impossible!”

Fred tripped over his foot and fell over, spilling his books, potions ingredients, and a few other vials he hoped no one noticed. George helped him gather his things. He caught George’s eye and knew they had come to the same conclusion.

“Enjoying your time-turner?” Fred asked, leaning his elbow on Hermione’s shoulder when they ran into her the next day.

“What’s a time-turner?” Her innocent tone would have been believeable if she hadn’t avoided looking at him.

“Really, Hermione,” George said. “Just because Ron’s blind doesn’t mean we are.” She turned to glare at him. He raised his hands defensively. “Don’t get us wrong. We love our brother, we do–”

“He can just be a bit of an idiot sometimes,” Fred said.

George nudged her. “So about that time-turner . . .”

“And don’t try to lie,” Fred said. “You can’t fool the masters.” She rolled her eyes and pulled out from under his arm.

“We already know,” George pointed out. “You might as well admit it.”

She chewed her lip. “Fine, but no one’s supposed to know, so you can’t tell anyone!”

“Promise,” Fred said.

George shook his head. “I can’t believe you got one to take classes. Do you know what you could do with one of those?”

Hermione folded her arms. “There’s a reason they aren’t just handed out. They can be very dangerous.”

Fred laughed. “That’s what makes it fun.”

“Hermione! Where’d you go?” Ron called as he and Harry came around the corner.

“Coming!” She ran off, shooting a hard look at the twins.

A few weeks later, the boys were playing cards when Alicia handed George a couple sickles.

“This is for the cakes you gave me and Angelina last night. That’s the full cost, isn’t it?” George nodded and pocketed the coins.

Fred looked up and grinned. “We appreciate your business.” When she walked away, Fred caught a glimpse of Hermione in the corner, pouring over three books at once and looking utterly exhausted.

Fred nudged George and pointed at her. “You think we should give her some?”

“I suppose if anyone deserves it, she does,” George said, getting up and running to their dormitory.

Fred walked over and leaned on the back of her chair. “How’re you doing?”

“Go away.”

“But if I do that, I can’t help.” He slid into the seat next to her and smiled when she looked up.

“Help? With what?”

“You’re exhausted and I know why. For one thing, you’re taking too many classes,” she started to protest, but he interrupted. “There’s a reason some of the classes overlap. For another, you’re spending a lot of time on homework and probably not sleeping much,” she didn’t argue with that one. “And you’re living longer than twenty-four hour days.”

She laid her head on the table. “Believe it or not, I actually managed to figure all that out for myself. Now if you don’t have a solution, please go away.”

“As a matter of fact, we do have a solution,” George said, materializing on her other side. He squatted down beside her chair.

“Well, it will help anyway,” Fred amended.

Hermione kept her head on the table, but turned to look at George. “Really?”

He nodded and set a napkin with a small cake beside her. “Here.”

“I already had supper and I don’t feel like dessert.”

Fred leaned his elbows on the table and poked the back of her head. “Ah, but this is special dessert. See, we’ve been developing a little side buisness selling things on occasion and this is one of our most popular products.”

“Everyone in our year is taking their OWLs and that leads to a lot of stress and late nights,” George explained. “Most people turn to sugar or caffeine or spells to keep them awake. The first two are unhealthy and the last one leads to a lot of dangerous experiments, so we figured developing a safe, magical alternative would lead to a good payout. We finally created the potion at the beginning of the year and this cake has it mixed in.” George pushed the cake closer.

“You won’t taste it, but it’ll give you more energy for a while,” Fred told her.

She sat up and looked between the two of them. “You made this?” They nodded and she pushed it away. “No. I am not going to be your guinea pig.”

“Relax. We’ve already tested it plenty on ourselves,” Fred said.

“Plus we got some help from Snape,” George assured her.

Hermione frowned. “Professor Snape helped?”

Fred shrugged. “Well, he didn’t know he did, but it’s amazing how much you learn when he thinks he’s correcting your dumb mistakes.”

“I think we’re failing class,” George said, “but we’ve learned enough to make up for it.”

Hermione looked back at the cake. “You’re sure it’s safe?”

Fred tipped his chair back. “Of course! We’ve been selling them for months and no one’s had any problems. Professors haven’t caught on either.”

Hermione had been reaching for the cake, but she jerked her hand back at his words. “Why don’t you want them to know?”

“Think about it,” George said. “Everything can be bad if you have too much of it, and do you really think everyone buying these will be careful?”

“If the teachers knew we were selling them, we’d be blamed every time someone tried to go a week without sleeping by eating them or something like that. As long as you don’t do anything stupid . . .” Fred settled the chair back on the floor and watched her study the cake. He smirked. “Of course, if you don’t want it, we can take it back.” He started to reach for it, but her hand shot out and grabbed it.

“No. No, I definitely want it.” She narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t some sort of prank, is it?”

George stood up and grinned. “Nope. Sometimes we just like to help people.”

Fred stood as well. “We’re nice like that.” Hermione picked up the cake and took a bite.

“George! Fred!” Oliver called. “I need to talk to you. We have to reschedule our quidditch practice!”

“Duty calls.” George gave Hermione a salute and the two boys walked away.

Half an hour later, Fred looked over at Hermione, who was now working with a renewed vigor. She caught him looking and smiled, then mouthed the words “thank you”. He tipped an imaginary hat and swept an elaborate bow. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her work, but she was still grinning.

He turned back to George who was now also grinning at him.

“What?”

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