Hey, everyone! I'm Summer and here's another crazy idea I've got for a story :) So I've recently discovered that Fremione is my OTP and that writing the characters of the Weasley twins is so much fun, and I just simply had to start writing about them! And here's the result of that: The beginning of a new long journey that will probably take me forever to finish. But I can already feel that it'll be worth the while :)

I'm going to try to keep this as canon as possible - at least, as canon as I can keep it with remaking the relationship between Fred, George, and Hermione. But enough of this A/N - I hope you enjoy this first part!

Hermione Granger was eleven years old when she met Frederick Gideon and George Fabian Weasley.

She hadn't known who they were, of course. If she had, there was not a chance that Hermione, the picture perfect student, would have voluntarily associated with Hogwart's current two most infamous pranksters.

But unfortunately, this particularly valuable piece of information was not revealed to the first-year until a week after they had rather courteously aided her with her trunk on the Hogwarts Express on the first day of school. And by then, well, the Gryffindor bookworm didn't exactly have a choice in her interacting with the two, because the Weasley twins made it for her.

"Hullo. Do you want some help?"

The voice startled her a bit, but she was thankful that someone had noticed her struggling and could aid her. Hermione tried to muster out a "Yes, please", but the crushing weight of her trunk scarcely allowed her to breathe, let alone speak.

"Here. Wingardium Leviosa." The trunk was lifted out of her hands, and Hermione watched in wonder as magic brought her trunk from her arms to the shelf in the compartment.

"That's two that we've helped today," someone said from directly behind her, clapping his hands.

Hermione spun around. "We've?" she repeated, but the word was already dying off her lips as she said, "Oh."

She briefly wondered if all this talk of magic and witnessing some in front of her eyes was fooling with her senses, because there appeared to be two of the exact same person standing in front of her.

The two boys, who were both a head taller than her, had matching flaming red hair, sparkling blue eyes, and loose smiles on their faces.

"Thank you," she addressed them, subconsciously rubbing her eyes and blinking at them in slight disbelief. The two seemed to be exactly alike, but surely there was something that would distinguish one from the other?

"No problem." The boy on the right winked and said, "We always love-"

"-to help-" the identical boy on the left continued.

"-a damsel in distress!" The two, obviously twins, grinned at the slightly startled expression on her face.

"You're a first year, right?" The one on the left said.

Hermione's face brightened. "Yes, I am! You two aren't, though, right?"

"Clever," the right one said. "We're third years."

"What House do you want to be in?"

Hermione bit her lip indecisively. She'd spent the past month trying to decide where she would fit best. Ravenclaw was the clear choice - intelligence was something she valued above nearly everything in the entire world, and yet, the emblem of the bronze eagle set on the blue background did not entirely sitwith her.

The twins, picking up on her hesitation, said simultaneously, "We're Gryffindors, by the way."

"Gryffindor sounds alright," Hermione nodded eagerly. "Perhaps Ravenclaw."

"No, no, not Ravenclaw," stated the twin on the left with a stern face. "Gryffindor is where all of the excitement happens! Good wizards always come out of Gryffindor."

"I know," said Hermione proudly, calling upon the knowledge she'd obtained from her school books. "Professor Dumbledore was one of them."

"Oh, ol' Dumbly," said one of them with a chuckle.

Hermione recoiled, horrified at the informality that he was using. Evidently, the other twin on the left spotted this because he nudged his brother and said, "Oi, you mean Professor Dumbledore, don't you, George?"

George - the twin on the right - smirked and nodded. "Yes, Professor Dumbledore." He paused, as if remembering his manners. "Oh! Completely forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm George Weasley, and that bloke over there is Fred Weasley, who is, unfortunately for me, my twin."

"Ah, Georgie is just jealous of my natural charm and good looks," said Fred pleasantly.

"Hermione Granger," she said, extending out a hand.

Fred grasped the side with the palm of her hand while George slipped his hand over the back of hers.

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Hermione Granger," said Fred with a bow as the three awkwardly shook hands.

Fred and George stayed for only a minute or so more before they excused themselves to go look for their younger brother, who they said was in her year.

Hermione closed the compartment door behind them. She sat down on the comfortable seats of the train compartment, breathing in the silence. She loved silence. Once, she'd proudly told her mother that if she had to describe the sound of books, it would be silence, because silence meant that she could read, and reading meant books.

But Hermione was well aware that her nerves and excitement would currently overpower her patience to read, and so did not attempt to take out one of the many books she'd brought from home to reread.

Instead, she thought about Hogwarts. She thought about what the two twins had told her about Gryffindor. And she thought that if there were people as nice, even though they'd been rather animated, as the Weasley twins in Gryffindor, she'd like it there.

Their next real encounter took place three weeks after the Sorting, in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione had been diligently working on her Potions essay in the corner - she was determined to prove to Professor Snape that she was dedicated to school and learning, and he couldn't hinder her - when she was interrupted.

"Hello, Hermione Granger."

"Nice to see you again."

Hermione froze, her quill hovering above her parchment for a second before she resumed her writing. "Hello, Fred, George," she said calmly.

"We were delighted to see that you were Sorted into Gryffindor," one of them said, darting in front of her so that if she lifted her head one centimeter, he would be visible.

"Except at the feast, we couldn't sit next to you because you were next to Percy."

"And Percy sometimes isn't all that fond of us."

Hermione let out a breath as she placed her quill down, now fully distracted and rather irritated. "Well, I suppose I understand, considering what I've heard about your pranks."

Both of their eyes widened. "Who'd you hear that from?"

"Your brother. People in general. I'll bet anyone who's a second year or above could tell me about them."

"Oh, so that's why you've been avoiding us," said Fred, shaking his head.

"We wondered why you hadn't talked to us for so long." George dramatically put a hand to his heart.

Hermione was not amused. "I haven't been avoiding you," she said haughtily. "And if it appeared that way, it's only because I'm busy with work."

"What's this you're doing here?" George's arm snaked around her and plucked the roll of parchment off the table as Hermione cried out in indignation. "Oh," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Potions. Snape's a lovely chap, don't you think?"

Hermione snatched at her essay, but George pulled it out of her reach. "Give it back, George," she fumed, her face steadily turning a shade of red.

"What are you talking about? I'm Fred!"

"No, you're not, George," said Hermione through gritted teeth.

"I'm not George, he is!" The paper slipped through Hermione's grasping fingers.

She flicked her eyes away from her essay to tell him confidently, "No, you're not. He's Fred, and you're George, and give me back my essay!"

Finally, the essay was plucked from George's fingers and she held it in her hands triumphantly. Hermione placed it down on the desk, smoothing a folded corner and making sure that the ink hadn't smeared. When she was satisfied, she made to pick up her quill, but was abruptly stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"What now?" She sighed in exasperation.

Fred leaned in, releasing his hold on her shoulder. "How do you know that I'm Fred, not George?" His face was devoid of expression, and his voice was emotionless.

"Yeah, how do you know that I'm not Fred?" asked George, his face a blank slate.

Hermione raised an eyebrow and said dismissively, "Oh, just tiny details."

She looked back down at her essay, taking her quill from the desk and dipping it into the inkpot. There was some scuffling noises from in front of her, but she purposely ignored it until one of the twins spoke again.

"Alright, who's who?" The voice held a note of pride, as if sure that she could not possibly guess correctly.

Hermione pursed her lips as she glanced up in annoyance before taking a few seconds to stare at each twin's face. "You're in the same spots," she said. "Fred's still on the right, George's still on the left. Can I go back to doing my essay now?" she pleaded.

The twins shared a look that immediately told Hermione that no, she was not going to be able to get back to her essay.

George stepped forward. "See, Hermione," he began with wonder.

"You seem to have a very special gift," Fred continued. He was staring very intensely at her, and Hermione shifted in her seat.

"See, not even our mum can tell us apart-"

"-and here you are, after three weeks, and you can already see who's who."

"And that interests us, it interests us very much."

"What's your secret?" the two finished seriously.

Hermione blinked and sighed. "If I tell you, will you please leave me alone?" She made it clear in her expression that if they said no, she would not tell them anything at all.

The two nodded vigorously, and Hermione sighed again.

"Well, I thought you two were completely identical, too," the first-year said. "But on the train, I noticed that while George's eyebrows are more proportionate in length, Fred, your right eyebrow extends further back than your left. And also, George, you've got a freckle right at the left corner of your mouth, while Fred, it's reflected to be on the right corner for you. There's some other minor things that I can't put my finger on, but can I go back to writing now?"

Fred and George shared a grim nod, then said courteously, "Of course, Miss Granger."

And then finally, finally the two stepped away from the desk and wandered over to the couch by the fireplace. But ten minutes later, when Hermione allowed her eyes to take a break from her cramped cursive, she looked up to find Fred and George staring at her with identical analytical expressions on their faces.

Hermione was once more graced with the Weasley twins' presence, unfortunately for her, only two days after the night in the common room.

She was calmly walking to lunch after Transfiguration, trailing behind two of her roommates, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, neither of which seemed aware of her because they were both so deeply engrossed in their discussion of hair, a topic that was both a slightly sensitive and boring for Hermione.

She didn't mind not having friends - that meant more time to study - except it was awfully lonely sometimes on the weekends, when she'd resort to rereading the textbooks for the twentieth time or proof-reading her homework for the fourteenth time to keep herself busy.

"Oi! Miss Granger!"

Hermione instantly recalled and recognized the voice - rather, voices.

"Yes?" she drew out, turning around only to nearly be bowled over by one of the twins. George, she decided.

"We've made a decision!" Fred came up to stand next to her.

George regained his balance as Hermione said, "What?"

"A decision!" repeated George.

"On what?"

"On you." Fred looked very pleased to inform her this.

"On me." She blinked.

"On you," confirmed George with a dazzling grin.

Hermione flickered her gaze from one twin to the other until she said, "Okay," and turned back around, resuming her walk.

"Woah, woah, where're you going?" George ran up to her left while Fred stepped to her right.

"The Great Hall," said Hermione calmly. "I'm hungry."

"Haven't even heard us out, and she's already running away," Fred murmured as if taking note of her reactions. And then she glanced over at him to see him pull out a piece of parchment and wave his wand over it, inky black words forming another bullet point in addition to the few that were already on there.

"What's that?" Hermione snapped, reaching out for the parchment. She swore she saw her name on it.

"Ah, ah. Secret." Fred winked as he rolled the parchment up and slipped it back into his pocket.

"Secret that you'll know if you hear us out," added George heartily.

Hermione only quickened her pace in response, glaring at Fred's pocket as she did so. She desperately wanted to find out what it was, but didn't fancy the idea of digging into his pocket (who knew what pranksters kept in there?).

"Guess not," Fred commented behind her.

The Weasley twins had the advantage of having longer legs than her, so even though Hermione was practically at a jog, they seemed unfazed by her rapidly increasing speed.

"See, Hermione, we've done some thinking since two days ago."

"We're very interested in the fact you can tell us apart. Of course, we knew about the freckle thing, but we didn't know about Fred's eyebrow until you pointed it out. Just another reason why I'm the better twin," George added with a smirk.

"Just another reason why I'm more special," countered Fred. "Anyway, we like that you're more observant than most, and after careful thinking, we think that we'd like you to become our prankster in training!"

Hermione literally stopped in her tracks in horror. "I don't think so," she said quickly. She mentally wondered if the twins were pulling her leg, because wasn't it obvious that she was not the type to be a prankster? She was the person who'd told her primary school teachers every time a classmate cheated or said even one rude comment, for Merlin's sake!

George, who'd taken a few steps before noticing that she'd stopped, spun around and said, "Why not? We're charming. We're kind. We're fun to be around."

"You're pranksters," Hermione blatantly stated, as if that was all it took for a valid explanation. And in her mind, it was.

"All the more fun!" said Fred merrily.

"I'm not interested in being a prankster in training, thanks," she said coolly, pushing her way between them.

"It'll be fun!" called George.

"I'm not going to risk expulsion for a couple of pranks," Hermione snapped.

"Detention and losing House points," Fred corrected. "Well, so far, at least."

She coughed, and her voice was high-pitched when she spoke. "And detention, that's nothing, right?"

Fred and George glanced at each other, shaking their heads in unison. "Nope," they said truthfully.

Hermione continued walking, convinced that the two twins (who thankfully were not following her) were out of their minds. Hadn't they heard from their younger brother, Ronald Weasley, who was in her year? Hermione was a worker. She studied, not pranked. She sought to be the perfect student, not lose House points and get into detentions.

"It would be fun," George said meekly.

"We'd be your best friends," Fred offered.

And even though the comment was a feeble last attempt at prompting her to accept, a comment carelessly thrown out with meager hopes she would catch it, Hermione found herself pausing, dreaming of the possibility of having not one but two friends.

But she didn't look back as she walked away, and it wasn't until she made two other friends of her own that she would be reacquainted with the Weasley twins.

So that's the first chapter! I've divided the prologue into two parts, since it turned out rather long :) Prologue Part 2 will be posted next week!

- Summer