To Chris, Corinna and Lin for being friends even from afar

Hermione looked around the room where she and George had appeared, noting the white-painted woodchip beloved by more miserly landlords since time immemorial. "I could be wrong," she remarked, "but this seems just a bit on the small side for a shop, and the frontage and customer access both leave something to be desired." She ran a finger along the dusty sill of a modestly sized window that had been blacked out with newspaper, and looked pointedly at the one internal door that provided egress.

"Very funny." George threw himself down on the bare divan that took up most of the room, using their linked hands to pull Hermione down on top of him. "The shop is downstairs. This is my room. I thought you'd appreciate the private tour."

"I'm supposed to be helping you get the shop ready," Hermione protested even as she let his hand on her cheek guide her mouth down to his.

---

"Told you he mucked it up." Fred's voice echoed from the doorway. "They're stuck together at the lips."

Fortunately, Ginny caught George's backpack when Fred dodged out of the missile's path. It landed in her arms with a disproportionately loud clatter.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to knock before you barge into other people's rooms?" George asked in mock irritation as he stood up.

"She tried," Fred countered. "It didn't take."

Hermione shook her head as Fred and Ginny retreated downstairs and George extended a hand to help her to her feet. "Maybe being an only child isn't such a bad thing after all."

---

Hermione scowled at the twins as she set down a pair of mugs on the magically repaired and renovated shop counter.

Ginny passed her one of the mugs she had brought through with an amused smile. "Stop thinking of it as being useless and call it supervising," she told her disgruntled friend.

"But I came to help, and all I've been able to do is make tea," Hermione complained.

George wrapped an arm around her shoulders as he grabbed one of the mugs with his other hand and slurped a huge mouthful. "If it's any consolation, it's really great tea."

Hermione punched him playfully in the stomach. "Suck up!"

George shrugged. "You're the one who said it wasn't worth the risk of getting hauled up on charges for using underage magic outside school."

"Well," Hermione grouched. "It isn't."

"Actually," Fred announced, "we've got a nice little job for you and Ginny once tea break is over."

"Oh, yeah?" Ginny asked, her tone suspicious. "And what's that?"

"Just unpacking and sorting the stock we brought with us," Fred answered.

Hermione cast a disdainful glance at the two smallish backpacks that sat side by side in the corner. "Yes, that'll really keep us both busy."

---

Hermione opened a huge tub that was labelled in a language she didn't even recognise. She leaned forward and sniffed its contents. "What on earth is this?" she asked.

George let the stand which he'd been levitating settle to the ground and then leaned over it to see what Hermione had found. He grinned at the sight of Hermione and his sister, who were both now surrounded by stacks of merchandise. "Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. Whatever you do, don't sneeze or we won't be able to see anything for hours."

Hermione rubbed at her nose and then replaced the lid on the container and put it next to the Decoy Detonators. "Are we anywhere near finished, yet?" she asked.

Fred looked at the piles. "Halfway, maybe."

George finished moving the last stand into place. "The rest can wait," he announced as he looked around the shop. All the fittings which had been left behind by the shop's previous occupants gleamed. All their nicks and scratches had been repaired. The walls were a gleaming white. The carpet which they had originally believed to be brown had turned out to be a shade of orange which almost matched the twins' hair. "I think these two have earned lunch on us."

Hermione stood up, pushing the heels of her hands into the small of her back as she arched her spine. "We definitely did. My back is killing me."

Ginny brushed at the legs of her jeans and pulled her hair free of its ponytail, shaking it out.

George picked up Hermione's bag and both their jackets. Then he held out a hand to his girlfriend to steady her as she clambered over the piles of stock. Looking to his brother, he asked, "Leaky?"

At Fred's nod, he turned on the spot, drawing Hermione with him into the darkness and compression of Apparition.  

---

Hermione grinned up at him. "All the world to choose from, and you bring me to The Leaky Cauldron? How romantic."

"There are a limited number of establishments that don't object when their patrons appear out of thin air," George pointed out. "Once you pass your test you can take me to all the secluded back alleys near your favourite restaurants. Besides, I thought you might like to visit Flourish and Blott's."

Hermione scanned the bar quickly to make sure she didn't recognise any of the customers before she pulled him into a hug and pressed a kiss to his collar bone where it was exposed by his shirt's open neck. "Have I said that you're a perfect boyfriend?"

"Not today," the newly-appeared Fred replied, planting a kiss on Hermione's cheek, picking her up by the waist and carrying her to a nearby empty table.

Ginny smirked at George as they followed in Fred's wake.

Grabbing Fred by the back of his collar and pulling him back as he would have slid into the bench seat beside Hermione, George cuffed his brother's ear. "Keep your dirty paws off."

"Or what?" Fred asked as everyone took their seats, this time with George next to Hermione and Fred and Ginny opposite them.

Hermione grinned evilly. "Or the whole school might find out what Moaning Myrtle saw in the prefects' bathroom the other night. How much do you bet that once Ron finds out it'll get back to your mum?"

Ginny's eyes flicked back and forward between Fred and Hermione as George dissolved into fits of laughter. "What did Myr—" she began.

"Absolutely nothing. Figment of her imagination. Never happened," Fred insisted before turning to his brother. "You know your girlfriend is evil, right?"

George slid his arm around Hermione's shoulders. "I like her that way."

It was nearly an hour and a half later that the quartet finished their meal and went their separate ways, George and Hermione taking the back door into Diagon Alley while Fred settled the bill.

Ginny picked up her bag and jacket once Tom had departed with their dirty dishes. "How long do you think George is going to leave it before he tells her she's got Peruvian Darkness Powder on her nose?" she asked.

Fred raised an eyebrow. "That depends how long he intends to live."

---

They walked side by side down the winding street. There was too much chance of them being seen for them to hold hands or walk arm in arm, but Hermione's skin tingled every time his hand brushed against hers as they wove their way through the street's other occupants.

Flourish and Blott's was moderately crowded but neither Hermione nor George recognised any of the shop's other patrons.

George's eyes danced his amusement as he watched Hermione browse the shelves, pulling down volumes. Some of them she put back after no more than the briefest skim through their contents, others she seemed to savour like a connoisseur might savour a fine wine. He watched how her fingers traced the opulently decorated spine of 'Animal Transfiguration Explained' with longing as she replaced it. He waited until she had rounded the corner to pull it down from the shelf and find an assistant.

When he caught up with her she was carrying four books which looked identical, except that two were bound in green leather and two were bound in black. He tilted his head to one side to see if he could read any titles on the spines but there were none. "What are you up to?" he asked, as she set the volumes down on the counter.

"You'll find out later," Hermione answered. "If it works. Well, you'll probably find out anyway, but if it works, I'll have actually done it, and, if it doesn't, it won't matter anyway."

"Any other shops you want to go to?" George asked as the assistant wrapped Hermione's purchases. "Maybe some parchment? For those letters you might want to write."

The softness in Hermione's eyes when she looked up and the awkward way she shifted her feet as if she were having difficulty restraining herself from throwing herself at him, convinced George that he would willingly buy her a whole shop full of parchment.

---

Hermione spun in a slow circle, taking in the scene around her with a smile. "Your favourite place to spend a quiet afternoon?"

George nodded, taking in a deep breath.

"Just as long as you don't expect me to play Quidditch," Hermione teased.

George took Hermione's hand and led her to the oldest, most gnarled apple tree in the orchard. Taking off his jacket, he spread it on the ground and transfigured it into a blanket for them to lie on. "Are you going to tell me what those books are for now?" he asked.

"Maybe. In a bit," Hermione replied, settling herself on the blanket and pulling out a medium-sized rectangular tin from her backpack.

George lay down next to her and propped himself on one elbow to watch as she unsealed the lid and sniffed the stack of parchment inside it. "You do like sticking your nose into things, don't you?" he remarked.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, looking at him in suspicion as he took a handkerchief from his pocket.

"I mean you've got a smudge on your nose." He took her chin in one hand and rubbed with the handkerchief at the soot-like mark.

"Don't even think about spitting on that thing!" Hermione commanded as he pulled back and seemed to consider his efforts. "I'm not three and you're not my mother."

George grinned. "I guess I better do it this way, then." He pulled out his wand and made it drip a few drops of pure clear water onto the cloth. With gentle strokes he wiped the last of the powder from her nose. He paused when he was finished, their faces only inches apart. Then he brushed his lips against her damp skin before sliding his fingers into the riotous curls of her hair and guiding her lips to his.

Hermione dropped the tin, pushing it to one side as she lay back. Its contents spilled onto the grass so that the parchment's scent wafted on the air to mingle with those of the newly mown grass of the orchard's makeshift Quidditch pitch and the vernal apple blossom on the trees that surrounded it.

For a second George propped himself on his elbows to take in the picture of Hermione with her hair spread around her head like the sun's halo, but then she reached up and pulled him down to her.

"It's Amortentia!"
"It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask," said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, "but I assume you know what it does?"
It's the most powerful love potion in the world!" said Hermione.
'Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"
"And the steam rising in characteristic spirals," said Hermione enthusiastically, "and it's supposed to smell differently to each of us according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and -"
But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence.
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince