Chapter Text
Hermione was used to seeing Errol perched on her desk chair, so used to it that she had begun leaving a small bowl of treats for the kooky creature on the corner of her desk. The Weasleys wrote her often that it was typical seeing the owl two, three, and occasionally four times a week. Mostly it was Ron or Ginny, with the occasional letter from Mr. Weasley asking questions about muggle life or Mrs. Weasley sending her sweets – she often hid those as her parents were not the biggest fans of candy. She was positive that she had never received a letter from Percy – or the elder Weasley siblings Bill and Charlie but considering she had never met Bill and had only met Charlie once (briefly on the astronomy tower when they brought him Norbert), she didn’t find it weird. She could count the amount of letter the infamous Weasley twins had sent her on her right hand, and she was confident that she had never received a letter from just Fred. So, when she came home from shopping with her mum to find a letter from only half of the Weasley twins, she was intrigued, to say the least.
Hey Hermione, it’s Fred. Fred Weasley…but you already knew that. I need your help? Advice? I don’t know... It has to do with books and school and…ugh! I’m so confused. You are the only person I can think of to talk to about this, so I was wondering…hoping…we could get lunch at the Leaky one day this week. Let me know what time and day works for you. It would mean a lot.
Thank you,
Fred
(the cooler Weasley twin)
…
Fred had a dilemma. And no one to talk to about it, so when he got Hermione’s letter agreeing to get lunch with him, it was like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. So here he was, two days later, butterbeer in hand, waiting. Oh god, he thought, what if she doesn’t show? He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice the bushy-haired girl walk in and sit down in front of him.
“Fred. Fred! Fred Gideon Weasley!”
The dazed redhead jumped, “Blimey Hermione! Don’t do that! You sounded just like my mum. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
Hermione giggled, “I’m sorry, Fred. You were completely zoned out, and I couldn’t think of another way to get your attention. What did you want to talk about?”
Fred shook his head, “Let’s get some food first. I’m going to get the Fish and Chips. What about you?”
“I normally get the Toad in the Hole, but Fish and Chips sounds good.”
Fred nodded, “Mushy Peas?”
“Is there any other way?” Hermione laughed.
“I’ll go place our order,” he said, standing up and walking over to Tom. After handing the man a few coins, he returned to his seat.
“Fred Weasley, did you pay for my lunch?” She said with a slight smile.
“And I ordered you a butterbeer,” he said, placing his hands on the table. “It’s my way of saying thank you.”
“Of course,” she said, mirroring his action. “Your letter surprised me, but you’re my friend and friends help each other. What’s on your mind?”
Fred glanced down, “I’m going to ask you a question, and u need you to be completely honest, ok?” When Hermione nodded, he continued. “If you were going to guess, how many O.W.L’s do you think I would get?”
The brown-eyed girls’ eyes widened, “Fred, um, your super clever, so is George; I mean, look at some of the pranks you two have pulled, but O.W.L’s…”
“That low, right?”
“Fred,” Hermione sighed, “you are so smart if you just applied yourself-”
“I got 7 O.W.L’s.”
“7?”
“DADA, Potions, Herbology, Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, and Astronomy.”
“How?!”
“Rude.”
Hermione laughed again, “I’m sorry but, Fred, you’re not very studious. How do you even know your results? They don’t come out until the end of summer!”
“McGonagall wrote me. My exams were red-flagged because I did so well that they thought I cheated. When I was cleared, McGonagall wrote to congratulate and warn me; apparently, George didn’t do so well.”
“How many did he get?”
“McGonagall wouldn’t tell me, but when George and I talk about it the last term, he said he only really tried on three of them: DADA, Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology.”
“Wow.”
“I was going to lie when my results came, say that I got three, maybe four, but McGonagall, in her letter, she was so proud of me that I -”
“You what?”
He sighed, “She made me care about my education. No one’s been proud of me like that before. Not even Mum.”
“Your mum is plenty proud of you, Fred.”
“Not when it comes to school. Mum and even dad sometimes always compares George and me to Percy and Bill and Charlie. I’m tired of being compared to all my brothers. I just wanted to be Fred, and I want to be proud of myself. I want to stand out for more than making people laugh.”
“Making people laugh is something to be proud of,” Hermione said, placing her hand on his. “I may not always approve of your pranks, but I will admit – just this once – then even when your jokes annoy me, they never fail to make me laugh.”
“Really?”
Hermione nodded. “It’s not bad that you want to stand out. I know being compared to all of you kills Ron’s sense of self-confidence. It’s also not bad to want to care about your education. I don’t know what you or George want to do when you leave Hogwarts, but, in my opinion, the more owls, the better. More opportunities and choices are better than no opportunities and choices.”
“We want to open a joke shop.”
“What?”
“George and I, when we graduate, we want to open a joke shop. Kind of like Zonkos, only better. We’ve already started making some stuff: candies, and trick wands, and fireworks. We’ve got a book full of ideas. We’re going to call it Weasley Wizard Wheezes. How are O.W.L’s and N.E.W.T’s going to help with that?”
“I bet it would be easier to get a loan from Gringotts with Seven Newts and a business plan instead of scrimping and saving and hoping it works out. And think of all the theories you could learn and apply to your creations.”
“I’m aware of that. It’s just…I don’t want to make George feel left out. As much as I want to be Fred, I still want to be Fred and George. We’re a package deal, and we’ve always done everything together. It would be weird to go to class and revise without him.”
“Well, I’m assuming you don’t go to the loo with each other, so you already do some things separately. Maybe it will do you both some good to spend some time apart. You can still be twins and best friends without being attached at the hip. It is possible to be Fred and George and be Fred and George.”
Fred was silent for a minute. “Ok, let’s say I do this, take six owls – I’m dropping astronomy – will you help me?”
“Study! Show me the tricks of the trade and what not? You’re the smartest person I know, and no one revises like Hermione Granger.”
Hermione nodded, “You want to know the secret to all my study tricks?”
Fred nodded.
“I’m a muggle-born.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Fred asked as their food arrived at their table.
Hermione grinned and popped a crispy chip into her mouth, “you’ll just have to wait till after we eat to find out.”
***
Their pair continued to talk as they ate their lunch, but instead, they talked about everything but school. Fred told Hermione about the secret plans for WWW, and Hermione told Fred all about her summer with her parents and life as a muggle-born.
“Ok,” Fred said, “tell me something no one in the wizarding world knows about you.”
Hermione paused, “Je parle français.”
“Where’d you learn to speak French?”
“I was actually born in Paris.”
“Really? Why did you and your parents move to England?”
“Both of my parents were born in England. When I was three, we moved to Oxfordshire, and after I got my Hogwarts letter, we moved to Fulham.”
“Why?”
“They wanted me to be closer to Diagon Ally. I only live about a thirty minutes from here. It’s only a short trip on the underground. That way, during summer, I can visit and get books or supplies, and in September, it’s easier to get to Kings Cross,” she wiped the salt and malt vinegar off her hands. “ok, your turn.”
“My turn what?”
“Tell me something no one in the wizarding world knows about you.”
Fred paused, “Let me think…I know! Whenever I read something, for some reason, I can memorize it. It’s like when I close my eyes, I can see it in my head. I think that’s why I did so well on my O.W.L’s.”
“Eidetic memory.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s what you can do,” Hermione said excitedly. “You can remember things, numbers, memories, texts with almost true accuracy. That’s so cool, Fred. Do you know how much easier my life would be if I could read something and remember it without having to study it a million times?”
“You’d probably still read everything a million times,” Fred chuckled.
“That’s not the point,” Hermione said, pointing her finger at Fred. “Are you finished with your food?”
Fred nodded, “time to learn all your muggle-born study secrets?”
“Time to go to school supply shopping.”
***
Fred still didn’t understand why being a muggle-born made Hermione a better reviser, but he didn’t have much time to dwell on the thought as she pulled him through the crowds of people on the busy streets of muggle London. The only time he was ever here was to go to Kings Cross since he always floo’d directly to Diagon Ally. He tightened his grip on her hand; if he lost her, he was positive he would never make it back to Diagon Ally in one piece. About five minutes into their walk, they stopped in front of a store: Ryman.
“Where are we?”
“This is a stationary store. It where you can find all my muggle-born secrets and tricks come from.”
Suddenly the stores' glass doors slid open, and Fred jumped. The doors had opened, and no one was holding them.
“Come on,” Hermione said, taking his hand once again, and he swore he had never seen her grin as big as it was now. “it’ll be fun, I promise.”
Her grip held tight as she pulled him through – she called them aisles – and stopped at a wall labeled ‘Back to school!’ She loaded piles of things into a basket – when did she get that? – naming things that he had never heard of: spiral notebooks, pencils, sharpeners, highlighter, pens, and sticky notes. Suddenly he wished he took Muggle Studies, so he understood half of the things coming out of the younger girls’ mouth.
“Hermione,” Fred asked as she pulled him back towards the entrance, “Not that I doubt you or anything, but how are all of these things going to make me a better student?”
“There muggle school supplies, I use them to study, do homework, take notes. You’d be surprised how positively medieval magical school supplies are in comparison,” she said, handing the basket to a woman how began to place all of the ‘school supplies’ into a bag. When she was done, Hermione gave her some paper from the purse around her shoulder.
“ok,” Fred nodded, “but how do I use them? And how do I get them home without everyone seeing them and asking what they are?”
Hermione blinked, “I didn’t think about that,” Hermione held the bags in her hand as they stood outside the shop. “Why don’t I keep everything with me, and you come over to mine a new week, and I’ll show you? That way you have a week to explain everything to your mum and dad, and maybe one can apparate you over. ”
Fred stood still for a moment, wheels turning in his head as he tried to process everything that had happened in the last hour. “Ok,” he nodded
“Think you can do it? Tell your parents?”
Fred nodded again. “I think so…but I don’t have a choice, do I?”
Hermione smiled, placing a hand on his arm, “You always have a choice, Fred. Remember that. Why don’t I walk you back to Diagon Ally, so you can floo home? You can write me if you want to talk. I’ll listen and support whatever you decide.”
“Sounds like a plan.”