16: Getting Even

Chapter 16: Getting Even

That night Hermione sat in her childhood bed with the Tinkerbell table lamp glowing beside her. If she'd had any idea what fairies were really like when she was a kid, she would never have bought the thing. But as it was a reminder of her youthful enchantment with magic, Hermione hadn't bothered to replace it. Especially as she rarely came home for more than a couple weeks at a time.

Her mother had peppered her with questions about her involvement in the events the night Severus had killed the Headmaster. She asked about Hermione's summer plans and what would happen the following school year. Hermione was honest about the school possibly not opening again, but hadn't mentioned her intention to skip the year to go Horcrux hunting. If she didn't take her N.E.W.T.s, she would find her job prospects very narrow. But there was no reason she couldn't prepare for the tests on her own. She added a mental note to head to Diagon Alley for seventh-year textbooks as soon as she reasonably could...the next day if possible.

Her fingers tapped on the cover of the diary. Did she want to open it? She had studiously ignored it for the past few days, but she did need to make contact with Severus soon to make arrangements to meet with him the next night. She had no idea how she would explain her absence to her parents as they already knew she wasn't meeting the boys at the Dursleys' until the following morning.

With a sigh she flipped the book open to the place where she had last written in it. There were a few entries, all dated, strangely enough. He must have gotten irritated that she didn't respond and made sure she knew which one was written which day. The last time she had written him, it had been the early hours of Tuesday. It was now Thursday evening.

Tuesday night

Have you changed you mind about tomorrow? We really do need to speak, and I wouldn't want you to suffer any hardships from the bond, due to our separation.

Hermione interpreted that to mean he was getting physically anxious. The truth was she did find herself jittery today. Nearly three days without her Severus Snape fix was wearing on her, and she knew he felt the same way.

I'm here, Severus. Yes, we still need to meet tomorrow. I don't know if I can get away for that long. Or maybe I'll have to wait until after my parents go to bed. They already know I'm not expected at the Dursleys' until Saturday morning.

The Dursley's? Why are you going to the place where Saint Potter grew up?

Hermione smiled to herself when his words instantly started to appear on the page. His snark nearly leapt of the pages.

Ron and I decided to spend a few weeks with Harry. It'll give us time to work on . . .things. Projects and all that.

Granted. Are you sure you don't want to meet tonight? I could come to you. I long to touch you, to slide my hands across your skin. Put my mark on that sensitive patch of skin just below your collar bone.

Despite the fact that she was still angry, his words still affected her. Stop, please stop before you send my blood pressure through the roof. Hermione imagined he was chuckling on his end now. He was such a berk sometimes. Still, if she had demurred and pretended not to be affected by the images now dancing in her head, he would know better. And he was getting every bit as excited as she was.

This was supposed to be a meeting of the minds, Severus, not a chance to get off.

Get both of us off, don't forget. And we will talk, especially if you have the night to spend in my arms. It's the only way to take care of both our problems at once. Speaking of blood pressure, what were you doing in Weasley's arms today?

Hermione sighed. She had known this was coming up.

He's my friend, remember? I needed someone to lean on, and my husband was across the crowd hiding so the Aurors wouldn't cart him off to Azkaban.

I'll let you know. Goodnight.

*****

The next day she showed up at the Burrow, wand in hand. It was still early morning; early enough Hermione was hoping to catch Mr. Weasley before he left for work to check on that tent and discuss a couple other things she'd thought of over night.

Molly opened the door with a warm smile. "Hermione dear, it's so good to see you. I hope you are well?"

"Very well. Is Ginny up? How about Mr. Weasley? I'd like to speak with them, if there's time."

Molly looked surprised, but nodded. "Of course, I'll get Arthur. Ginny will still be in bed asleep, you can go up and give her a shake if you like."

"I think I will." Hermione Apparated up to Ginny's room and nudged her. "Gin, wake up."

"What's going on?" Ginny rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Been to see Harry yet?"

Hermione smiled at Ginny's question, it hadn't been twenty-four hours since she spoke with him last. "No. Thought I might pop by this afternoon just for the fun of harassing the Dursleys again. But I have other business to see to first."

"Business. You sound just like the twins. Everything's business to them. They spent the whole evening telling me about their newest products."

"Speaking of the twins." Hermione allowed a sadistic smile to come over her face. "Your dad said they were staying here sometimes?"

"Yeah, they keep talking about returning to their flat over the store, but then Mum cries about how she's losing all her babies and they let the subject drop a little longer. They came home last night." She looked into Hermione's face for the first time and lifted a brow. "If that look's for them, I'm glad I'm me. You look scary."

"They're going to be sorry they were ever born." She smirked, then left the room and crossed the hall to where the twins slept.

It was still early enough she had high hopes of catching them still abed. The question was which of her many, many fantasies of revenge to use first. She slipped the wand from her sleeve and opened their bedroom door silently.

Morning was not the twins' best time of day. She knew this not only from seeing them in the common room first thing in the morning for all those years, but also from the times she had stayed at the Burrow. If they were due at the shop at eight-thirty, they wouldn't be up until eight. And it was only a little past seven-thirty now.

Two lumps in the beds told her they were still sleeping, though she couldn't see even a hint of their skin or hair. The question was which brother to pick on first, since she couldn't do them both at the same time. Then again, since she couldn't tell which was which without seeing them, she doubted it mattered much.

With a flick of her wrist, one of the twins, Fred she realized when he let out a yelp, rose from the bed by his ankle. She had him spin a few circles in the air, then stuck him to the ceiling in nothing but his underwear. Thankfully, their room had a high ceiling. George was just peeking out of the covers when she gave him similar treatment. Boxers this time. Not a detail she really cared to know, but she worked on ignoring it as she considered her next move. "So many options, so little time."

"What's going on?" Fred asked, wide awake now and staring daggers at her. "What's the deal 'Mione?"

George let a few expletives fly. "We were sleeping. We've been putting in loads of hours at the shop. Give us a break."

"Yes, and I was moving happily along in my life until your interference. You had to make things difficult though, didn't you?" She really was feeling much nicer about the whole prank thing now, or she was until Severus killed Dumbledore. It had renewed her irritation with the twins. If it hadn't been for them, she wouldn't have the extra worry about whether or not Severus was telling her the truth or was playing her. She wouldn't worry constantly if he would end the day still breathing. All of the hiding, sneaking around and confusion were their fault. Still, she couldn't feel bad about placing the blame squarely on their shoulders without giving them credit for her tingling excitement when Severus pulled her close and kissed her.

Of course, she enjoyed being in love most of the time. She couldn't find much fault there, or wouldn't under different circumstances. Seeing as how they had figured their prank would be nothing but harmless fun, she thought they deserved a little lesson.

"Our interference?" Fred spluttered. "But we hadn't heard anything for so long, we thought you were finally happy with your soul mate. You didn't even hex us at the funeral. And the way you were cuddled up to Ron made us think you had worked out your problem."

"Ron isn't my soul mate. And please, like I would cause a scene at Dumbledore's funeral. What kind of person do you think I am?" She twisted her wand twice, and they each fell in turn onto their beds again. Then she conjured two large buckets of ice cold water from thin air and dumped it on them. She still stood in the door way, out of harm's way.

"A sadistic one," George told her through his chattering teeth.

"Oh, come now. I thought you would both appreciate getting baths this morning, I just saved you some time." She smiled as a new thought occurred to her. Remembering what she had done to Marietta Edgecomb in her fifth year, she gave each of them a new look. Their freckles changed colors, flashing from one to the next, each spot rotating through the spectrum like a circus ride. Marietta's had all been purple and formed the word SNEAK across her face. They had also lasted for months despite anything Madam Pomfrey could do.

"And you could each use a new look. That should do it. Don't worry, unlike what you did to me, your spots will return to normal color again. Eventually." She walked out the door, slamming it behind her with magic and returned to the kitchen, a new spring in her step. Considering the fates she had thought up for the two of them, the colored spots were positively generous. Of course, they may not agree when the rotating colors continued on their skin for the next six months at least. And that was if they didn't try to remove them magically...which they were certain to do. That last bit was inspired by their fireworks, which multiplied with every attempt to destroy them. Only in this case she figured they had enough spots already, so lengthening the duration was the best bet.

"Mr. Weasley, I'm so glad I caught you." Hermione spotted him as soon as she entered the kitchen.

"Sit, Hermione, join us for breakfast. There's always enough to go around," Molly invited and Hermione agreed.

Ginny sat blinking over her cup of tea. "What's going on?"

Charlie had come down as well. The second-oldest Weasley brother returned to Britain after Dumbledore's demise, wanting to be on hand to help the Order now that it was well known that Voldemort was back. He grinned at Hermione and offered her a seat next to him.

Hermione poked around the edges of the topic of the Horcruxes, asking for more information, hypothesizing and getting feedback without letting the older two men know what the actual subject was. They both looked completely baffled by her questions. She made a note to ask Bill about curses that might be on the objects when he was feeling better and then turned the subject to defensive spells for her to work on with the boys. Hermione was just putting away the paper when the twins came scowling down the stairs.

Molly, whose back was toward the boys, spoke over her shoulder. "I didn't expect you for another twenty minutes. Have some tea or coffee and I'll get something whipped up."

"What happened to your faces?" Ginny asked with a grin, staring at the rotating colors.

Hermione took a sip of her coffee, keeping her expression as bland as possible.

"Hermione did it. We can't get it off, either. We spent five minutes trying to get the bloody spots to return to normal."

After allowing a sly smile to cross her face, Hermione tipped her head. "I figure you just upped the life of your 'ailment' by a good, hmmm, twenty percent. You'd be better off letting it alone."

"How long are we talking here?" Fred asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Do you remember Marietta Edgecomb? She may still wear her makeup thicker than normal." She figured it was an exaggeration, or might be anyway, but didn't worry about correcting the perception.

Both men looked horrified.

"What have you two done?" Molly demanded. Obviously she decided Hermione wouldn't have attacked them without cause.

Both Fred and George looked at their mother, looked at Hermione, then back at each other. Fred spoke up. "Nothing. Nothing you need to worry about. Obviously our Hermione can give as good as she gets."

"I wouldn't concern myself about it if I were you, Mum," George added.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley. They'll think twice before trying anything like it again. I promise you. This," she waved a hand toward the boys, "is nothing compared to the havoc I could have wrought. In fact, they're lucky I didn't see them months ago." She shot a glare in their directions. "I had much more inventive ideas I decided against using. Your mother didn't deserve that kind of heartache."

"Don't worry, we won't make that mistake again." Fred spoke, but George nodded his enthusiastic agreement.

Molly looked at Hermione with a touch of admiration before turning her back on the lot of them to finish preparing breakfast.

"That was brilliant, Hermione. Nobody gets the better of those two." Charlie's eyes sparkled at her over his coffee cup, and Hermione grinned back before returning her attention to her own cup.

She wondered how long it would be before Ron and Charlie got the story out of the twins. Not long enough, that was for sure.

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AN: Thanks to all my reviewers, you are the best! I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the story and hope her revenge on the Weasley twins didn't disappoint.

A big thanks to my beta, MaevePotter, and the RobisonRocket for preparing my story for validation.