Acquisition

A/N: This was written for the Twin Exchange August Challenge. And for Mistymist, who inspired it. Not my normal thing, be kind with reviews, please. Thanks to remuslives for beta reading.

Prompt: owl post

Pairing: Hermione/George, Luna/Pansy

Quote: "That's absurd!"

Theme: Ginny's birthday

Fred scratched his head, looking at the mounds of paperwork in front of him. "George, are you sure about this?"

"Quit complaining and just do it," George answered from behind his stack of paperwork. They wanted to buy into Zonko's Joke Shop, but were so far, unable to locate the owners. All they could find were dodgy identities from the long deceased owners.

"George, I think we might need to enlist some help with our paperwork. What do you think?"

"Well, that don't sound bad at all. Who did you have in mind? I can think of a couple people, Hermione, Parvati...maybe Seamus?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of Hermione or Tonks; we should probably ask them both. If either say yes, then we put them on a one month probation period."

"I like that idea. Plus, it would be nice to have a couple pretty birds on the staff with us. Let's close up for lunch and go ask them in person." And with a pop! they were standing in front of a startled Hermione.

"Don't you two know how to use a door? What's wrong with you? Get out and let me put something on, NOW!" They stared as she clutched her dressing gown closed.

"Wow, it would have been nice to pop in two minutes sooner, Fred."

"Gross, she's like our little sister."

"That's absurd! We aren't related; no matter what Mum says."

After several minutes, Fred knocked on the door and said, "Can we come in?" She grumbled for a moment, but consented. They walked in, and Fred said, "Sorry about that, we didn't think that you would be...uh... Well, we thought you would be up for the day."

"Not that it bothered me, mind you; you are very pretty," said George, ignoring Hermione's glare.

"We did come here to ask you something very important; George, would you like to ask her?"

"Yes, yes, we need some help at the shop and we thought of you. We have a lot of paperwork to go through, so would you come to work for us? We do pay well?"

She crossed her arms and huffed a little. "Can I think about it and let you know in an hour or two?"

At the same time, they both nodded in agreement. "We have to go; come by and let us know, please and thank you. See you soon." Pop! and they were gone.

They appeared at Tonks's front door and Fred knocked rather loudly. They heard cursing as someone fumbled with the door. Slowly, the knob turned, then a head full of shaggy red hair poked out looking at them. Ron glared at them, the shirt that his mum made his for the previous Christmas, twisted awkwardly as if it had been hastily thrown on.

"Hey Bro, Tonks home? We need to talk to her."

"Yeah, she's here. It's nice to see you guys too."

"Well...aren't you going to invite us in?" Fred asked as they shouldered their way past their little brother. "By the way, what are you doing here?"

Ron sighed heavily, "Tonks and I have been seeing each other for about three months."

"How did I miss that?" blurted Fred.

"Well, we have been busy with the shop." George countered.

"Come on into the kitchen, then."

When the three entered the small room, they saw Tonks whipping up some sandwiches. "Hello boys, how's your afternoon?"

Over lunch, the twins told her of their opening and offered her the position.

"I can help you out for a little while, until you are caught up. But, my Auror work comes first."

After devouring the lunch she had prepared them, they each relaxed back into their chairs.

"Owl post," Ron announced and went to open the window. "Hey everyone! Look at this; an invitation to Ginny's birthday party. Tonks, will you go with me? It'll be loads of fun."

"Of course I will. By the way, George, how is Hermione?" she asked with a smirk.

"We just left there," said Fred, missing the meaning of the question. "We also asked her for help, so we can find what we need sooner for the next purchases."

"What's that mean?" Ron asked.

"We can't tell you, yet; but you'll know soon. Thank you for lunch, got to go, breaktime is over. By the way, you start in an hour."

Pop! and they were gone.

"That went well," Ron pouted. "Now that my brothers know, the whole family will within the hour."

Tonks walked up and kissed Ron on the lips and said, "It's about time, too. Have a good day, I have to get ready for my first day at work."

Meanwhile, back at their shop, the two boys were back to staring at the paperwork, looking for that one piece of parchment they needed so bad. When all of a sudden, Pop!, Hermione appeared. They knocked tons of papers to the floor.

"How do you like it boys? I will take the job, thank you. What do I need to do?"

"Glad you're here." At that moment, Tonks popped into the room ready to work, "As I was saying, you girls can start by going through this paperwork for us." He pointed to the mounds, now on the floor.

"Put the stuff from Zonko's Joke Shop, into one, easy to find spot for us, thank you. We will be in our thinking room if you need us. But do use the door," said George.

They said "okay" at the same time that the two boys left the room. When the twins were on the way to their room, they stopped in the main shop to check its the goings on. There, they saw Luna and Pansy walking into the store holding hands; the two girls leaned in close and kissed passionately. The two boys went on to their second office and left the happy couple to their snogging.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Tonks were in the office and Hermione said, "Boys don't know how to do anything," With a flick of her wrist, she had all the papers in nice neat piles ready for Fred and George to look at. They decided to look at the Zonko's papers.

After reading for five minutes, Tonks found an interesting bit of parchment. "Let's take this to the boys; they'll want to see this!"

"I can't believe it, you found it! That is what we have been looking for! How did you find it so quick?" Fred asked.

"A good bit of magic. If you would have paid attention in school, you would have known that."

"Thank you. Now we know who we need to get a hold of to buy Zonko's. I never thought it would be Sirius and Lupin. This will be fun, let's go!"

George grabbed a bit of floo powder and sped into the fireplace, twirling out at Grimmauld Place, Fred tumbled out a second later, leaving the girls with little clue about what was going on.

"Well, nice of you to drop by, Fred. And you, George. Come on in and have a drink," said Lupin.

"We would, but we are here on business. You see, we found this rather interesting piece of paper you two need to have a look at for us."

George handed the paper to Lupin. Sirius read it over his shoulder, and they both started laughing.

"So you found out that we're the owners of Zonko's, and now you're interested in buying it," Lupin surmised.

"Yes. We also found another letter to one James Potter. He mentioned forgetting a certain entrance to Hogsmeade on the Marauder's map."

"You two are good at knowing what you shouldn't. Now that you've found us out, don't tell anyone. If you can do that, we will sell you the shop."

When they returned to the shop with the deed to Zonko's, Fred wrapped a friendly arm around Tonk's shoulders, apparating them to Ginny's party to share the good news.

"Where are they off to?" Hermione asked, automatically looking over the purchase papers for loopholes.

"Ginny's birthday party. You want to file that for me?"

Hermione sighed and headed into his office, followed closely by George. Turning around after slipping the parchment into the proper folder, she stumbled into his waiting arms, not noticing the decoy detonator that spun quickly away from her shoes and into the shadows. She looked up into his eyes, as he lowered his face slowly towards her. Their lips touched softly at first, then deepened passionately.

The lights dim out in the office and all you nosy lot can hear is Hermione and George moaning.

The End.

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