Blue by WeasleyForMe

'"There's something very liberating about being able to express yourself underneath your trousers!" George insisted passionately.'

A big thank you to my beta for this story, naru894! Thanks for all your help!

This was written for the Twin Exchange September monthly challenge with the prompts: 1. Fred never died 2. George wears blue boxers

Moving day had finally arrived, and Hermione was so excited she was practically giddy. She turned the volume up on her Wireless and sang along loudly. She happily packed all of her books into her old school trunk with a flick of her wand. She smiled as the books stacked themselves alphabetically, clearing some space for more of her clothes.

"Hermione? You in here?" called Ginny's voice from the living room. Her friend had agreed to come help her pack her belongings for a few hours this morning, which was a good thing, because Hermione had accumulated quite a lot in just twenty-six years.

"Back in the bedroom, Gin!" she called back, and soon the redhead was standing in her doorway.

"You've got an awful lot of stuff, Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed as she surveyed the room. "Are you sure this is all going to fit in the flat? George has a lot of things too."

Hermione tapped her fingers against her wand and looked around. She would be moving into the flat above Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with her boyfriend, George, but surely he didn't have too many belongings. In fact, with Fred and Angelina moving out today, all of Hermione's furniture would actually come in handy. But, did George really have tons of things hoarded away in the flat? In reality, Hermione never checked his dresser drawers or the hallway closets in all the times she'd been there.

"Stop it, Ginny! You're making me nervous for no reason," Hermione scolded. "Can you shrink my shoes and pack them in this?" she asked, handing a box to her friend.

Ginny went to work quickly, occasionally muttering, "Ooh, these are cute. Can I borrow these?"

Hermione just laughed and agreed. She was finally packing her bedding as Ginny stood up.

"You have so many shoes. Where are you going to put them all?" Ginny asked, counting all the tiny pairs of Hermione's shoes and boots.

"In the closet, of course," Hermione replied, magically folding her sheets into neat piles.

Ginny snorted and shook her head. "Very funny."

Hermione turned toward her and shrugged. "What do you mean?" she asked, quite confused.

Ginny eyed her friend carefully. "You do know about George's collection, don't you?"

Hermione froze in her progress. "Collection?"

Ginny's eyes widened slightly and she said, "I can't believe you don't know about the collection."

"Well what is it?" Hermione asked, starting to get annoyed. "It couldn't be that bad."

Ginny held up her hands and shook her head. "I'm not saying another word. You'll find out in a few hours when you get there. Let's just say, there is a good reason that Angelina is so excited to move into a bigger place with Fred."

Hermione and Ginny returned to their work in silence, and Hermione's imagination ran away on her.

Hermione arrived at the flat just as Angelina and Fred were carrying out their last few boxes. She quickly looked around but saw nothing too frightening, just dirty dishes. Nut, she had already decided that if George collected dead, preserved insects or old hair clippings, she was just going to have to break up with him and find a flat on her own.

"George said he'd be back up at noon during his lunch break to help you move, but feel free to get started," Fred told her with a smile as he Apparated away.

"And don't let his collection get any bigger," Angelina added, rolling her eyes. "Fred's is out of control. They take up nine moving boxes. Nine! But, I think George might actually have more than Fred. Oh, and watch out for dung bombs!"

As Hermione opened her mouth to ask for more information about these collections, Angelina bid her farewell and also Apparated out of the flat.

"Well thanks," Hermione muttered as she set down dozens of moving boxes and enlarged them to their normal size. She placed several pieces of furniture in the living room and then enlarged those as well. She picked up her miniaturized dresser and cautiously headed into George's bedroom. She had just started looking for a good place for her clothes when she heard him in the kitchen.

"Hermione?" he called before appearing in the doorway. "There you are. I should probably still be organizing our new Skiving Snackboxes, but I wanted to come up and see you," he said with a saucy wink before pulling her into a deep kiss. Hermione felt the tiny dresser slip from her fingers and land on the bed as she smiled against George's lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his fervent kisses. "I've been looking forward to moving day all week," he whispered as his lips moved from her mouth to her neck.

Hermione could feel herself being led to the bed, but she dug her feet into the rug. "George! Not right now," she managed to say without blushing too much. "You've got to go back downstairs to work soon, and I need to figure out where my belongings are going."

George grinned mischievously but released her. "Fine. What can I help you with?"

"Where should I put all my clothes?" she asked.

"Anywhere you want, love. You can move things around as you like. Now that Fred and Angie moved out, this place is going to feel enormous," he said, moving some of his dirty clothes away from the wall so she could place her dresser there.

"Help me put these in the closet?" Hermione asked, holding up her dress robes.

George cautiously opened the door to his closet just a tiny bit. "Remember, we can always move things around, okay Hermione?" he asked, making puppy dog eyes at her.

"Yeah… okay," she replied guardedly as he slid the doors fully open. Suddenly all she could see was the colour blue. There were stacks upon stacks of blue fabric shoved into every crevice inside George's closet, and there was still more piled on the floor by his feet.

"What in the world…?" Hermione asked, pulling some of the fabric loose. She held it up, and realized it was a pair of blue plaid boxer shorts. She grabbed another piece of blue checkered fabric; it was another pair of boxer shorts. She grabbed three more: light blue with dark blue polka dots, navy blue hearts, and blue cats on a blue background. George chuckled hesitantly at her as she tossed the five pairs of blue underwear onto his bed.

Hermione crossed her arms and glared at him. "Is this entire closet filled with your pants?"

"Yes, but it's not a very big closet, now is it?" George replied, forcing a casual laugh.

"And is all of it blue?" she asked quickly.

"Well, yeah," George admitted with a shrug.

Hermione cocked her head slightly. Now that she thought about it, she had only ever seen him wearing one colour boxer shorts. She'd never really considered it before, because she was usually distracted by his nearly nude body at that point.

"But, there must be two hundred pairs in here, George!" she said, looking at the stacks once more.

"There are actually two hundred and twelve in here," he confirmed with a grin. "Good guess!"

Hermione sucked in a breath of air. "What do you mean by 'in here'? Is there more?"

"Yes, but don't worry, I moved all of it from the hall closet into Fred's old room this morning."

"How many pairs are there?!"

"Six hundred and seven."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "No sensible person needs this much underwear! Where am I supposed to keep all of my clothes, George?" she asked, her voice raising an octave.

"Calm down, there's plenty of room in this flat for everything," George insisted. But within minutes, they had finished inspecting Fred's old bedroom, George's dresser drawers and the bathroom vanity cabinet, and there was very little space to be seen.

"Your underwear outnumbers all the rest of your clothing ten to one," Hermione finally said as she sunk to the floor. "I don't know if I should be concerned or impressed. How did you end up with so much?"

George sat down next to her and put an arm around her. "Well, when we were kids, Mum assigned us each a specific color for underwear, so she knew who got what each time she did the wash. I'm sure you can imagine how much dirty underwear there was with six boys."

Hermione crinkled her nose and laughed.

"But, it just caught on with me and Fred," he continued. "It was pretty funny to see who could get the most ludicrous patterns in their colour; I have some with dancing leprechauns somewhere. So, we continued the tradition after school, and it did come in handy since we've lived together for the past ten years. If it was blue, it was mine. If it was red, it was Fred's."

"Oh sweet Merlin! Fred has this many, too?" Hermione asked, suddenly recalling what Angelina had said about both of them having collections.

"Of course he does. You think he'd let me have all this fun?" George asked, holding up a navy blue pair with golden snitches on it. "There's something very liberating about being able to express yourself underneath your trousers!" George insisted passionately.

Hermione snorted. "That sounds filthy!

"You should see the ones that change from blue to invisible," George whispered with a grin.

"Hold on there, Casanova. We still need to figure out where all my clothes are going. And I hadn't even thought about my books! They are going to take up a lot of room."

George jumped to his feet as the magical alarm on his wristwatch sounded. "Bugger, I need to get back to work. You just go ahead and get rid of anything you want. You're right, I don't need this many, although it has been fun to collect," he said wistfully as he looked at the tidy piles in his closet.

As he pulled Hermione to her feet and gave her a kiss, she said, "I'll figure something out. See you after work."

George returned around six, dreading the fact that his impressive selection of monochromatic underpants had probably dwindled to twenty pairs. Twenty was enough for most people, but George thought he was much too clever to do what most people did. However, it was worth it to have Hermione living with him in his flat at last.

"What's that for?" he asked, pausing in the kitchen doorway as he saw that a large entertainment stand had been moved into the living room. His small Muggle television and modest collection of movies were placed on top of it, but there were at least ten drawers underneath that.

"That," Hermione said with a smile as the pointed to the new piece of furniture, "is the solution to our space issue. Come check it out."

George stood next to her as she pulled open two of the drawers revealing rows of his neatly folded, blue boxer shorts. His favourite blue Hogwarts pair was right in the front next to the blue dragon print ones. "You, you didn't get rid of them?" he asked looking at his girlfriend in wonder.

"No," she said with a grin. "Well, just the ones with holes in them."

"I can keep them?" he asked happily.

"You can keep them," she said with a nod.

"You're the best!" he said, scooping her into a hug. "Now we just need to find somewhere to store my collection of dead bugs."

"What?!" Hermione shrieked as she leapt out of his grasp.

George cackled uncontrollably. "Only kidding, I promise!" he said, crossing his heart. Hermione shook her head and joined in with his laughter. Living with George would certainly be an adventure.

Thanks for reading! I hope the underwear/pants/boxers usage was satisfactory to everyone, lol. Have a happy Friday, and don't forget to review and vote!