Hermione sniggered at her best friends as they stared at her in shock. Silently he held out the bowl and measuring jug. When they made no move she jabbed Harry in the stomach with the bowl until he took it and gently conked Ron round the head with the measuring jug.

"Remind me. Why?" Harry asked, following her apprehensively to the kitchen counter.

"It's for the twins. Their birthday is tomorrow and I wanted to do something special."

"What are you up to?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"Who says I'm up to something?"

"You are baking a cake for the twins the muggle way. That's suspicious enough."

"Wow, who knew the Chosen One was so scared of a little baking?"

"I am not!"

"Then be a good boy and do as you're told. I presume you know how to make a cake?"

"Aunt Petunia never let me cook. She was afraid I'd magically set it alight and burn the house down."

"Wow you are useless."

"Hey, which of us saved the world here?"

"Um, we all did."

"Oh yeah."

Grumbling Harry approached the counter.

"I hope you know how to break eggs." She said, handing him a couple.

"Yeah. You just throw them at Malfoy's face."

Despite her exasperation she laughed. "Good one. Break the eggs and try not to get bits of shell in the bowl." She went over to Ron and pushed him towards the counter. "Make yourself useful for once in your life Ronald Weasley. Here, measure out a three hundred and fifty grams of sugar."

"Why so much?"

"We need to make a big cake because there's a lot of people coming to their party." She said with her back to them, turning on the oven.

"Yeah and we probably won't be the only ones to bring a cake."

"Well I will bring a cake."

"Yeah but I don't think these cake tins are big enough for the size of cake you want." Harry pointed out, nodding his head to where the two cake tins stood on the counter. She looked round then went to search through the cupboards.

Emerging she brought out two more cake tins and thought for a moment. "Change of plan, guys. We're making two cakes."

"Why do we need four tins?" Ron asked, pouring out more sugar than they needed.

"You need two for each cake. Ron stop! We need two lots of one hundred and seventy five grams of sugar not the whole damn bag!"

Three quarters of an hour and much arguing and bickering and one flour fight later the cake tins were filled and in the oven. The boys collapsed onto the sofa in the adjoining living room of Hermione's apartment while she surveyed the kitchen.

"Can't you boys do anything without making a colossal mess?"

"If I remember correctly, you were the one who threw the first handful of flour." Ron accused, grinning.

Hermione leant over the counter and laid her chin on her arms. She laughed and her forehead dipped lower and when she looked back at the boys she had a white forehead. The boys burst out laughing. A curious look had them pointing, still chuckling, at her forehead. She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead absently and examined the flour on her hand. She laughed as though she could not help it.

When her giggles subsided she straightened up and brushed the flour off herself with her hands. She stared around the battle site which was her kitchen.

"I am not cleaning this up by myself. Come on boys, up and at 'em."

"No worries." Ron dug his wand out of his pocket with difficulty. Waving it in her general direction he declared "Scourgify!" and the kitchen became spotless in seconds.

Harry and Hermione stared at Ron in surprise. "Where did that come from?" they chorused in one of their increasingly frequent twin moments.

Ron sniggered. "I got mum to teach it to me since I made a lot of mess and she was getting angry at me all the time for it."

Hermione sat down between them with a contented sigh. "This explains a lot, you know."

"While we're on explanations, you have some to do of your own." Harry said, aiming it at Hermione.

"Oh? How do you mean?"

"All this care in making the cakes. Well you never made such an effort for either of our birthdays. Ever."

"Your mum always made cakes for your birthdays. And need I remind you of the summer Harry was locked in and starved at the Dursley's? I made him a cake then. Two of them I seem to recall."

"Yeah but never for me or Ginny or any other Weasley. Until today."

"So what's the problem? They're my friends too you know."

"Come on, truth now. Has your heart finally stirred?" Harry said, digging his elbow into her side encouragingly.

"And so what if it has? You're not jealous that it's not one of you are you?"

Harry leant forward and exchanged a meaningful look with Ron. "I don't think we'd be jealous exactly."

Hermione read the look, heard the words and stared at one and then the other and back again. Her mouth formed a silent "Oh!" then she tried to restrain her grin. "This explains an awful lot."

"We tried to tell you."

"Well at least I don't need to repress what I saw you two doing that night at the victory ball anymore."

"How much did you see?"

"Well let's just say you weren't the only ones who thought to use that particular alcove that night."

"You what? With who?" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione giggled and looked pointedly at the kitchen. The boys followed her look and comprehension dawned.

"Which one?" they chorused.

"Have a guess."

"George." Declared Ron decidedly.

"Fred." Harry said with an air of knowing at the same time as Ron.

"You two can't even tell them apart and yet you each said a different one."

"And you seem to be the only person in the world who can tell them apart. I always wondered how. I mean our own mother can't tell them apart."

"It's easy once you see them as two separate entities and not one being. Even if they like being seen as one, they are actually quite different."

"Go on then, which one did you fall for?"

"The chosen one was right."

"You said the victory ball. But that was almost a year ago now. Have you been keeping it secret since then?"

"Before actually."

"Why on earth didn't you tell us?"

"Because I thought you'd fly off the handle and stop speaking to me."

"Why would you think that?" Ron asked innocently.

Her answer was just a look.

Ron lowered his eyes in shame.

"Anyway, the pair of you are just as bad. How long have you two been going at it behind my back?"

"Three years." They chorused quietly with downcast eyes.

"Three years! Bloody hell!"

The next day they floo'd to the twins apartment above the shop, the two cakes in tins carried by Hermione and Harry. Harry was to keep it safe on pain of death.

The twins greeted them with hugs around and invited them to join the party in the living room. Harry gave the cake to Hermione who juggled with it until Fred took it off her hands. Harry hurried off after Ron who was marching towards the corner where Ginny was in a passionate embrace with Dean Thomas.

Hermione and Fred laughed and went to the kitchen.

"So what's all this?" Fred asked, setting his tin down and taking off the lid.

"Birthday cakes."

"Two of them?"

"There are two of you and you know me, I always have a backup plan."

"Indeed you do." He leant over and kissed her sweetly.

"About that…" she began, taking a cake out of the tin and setting it on a plate.

"You're not breaking up with me on my birthday are you?"

"Stop panicking, honey, quite the reverse. The obstacles are out of the way."

"They what?"

"What was it you said once? They shared a dorm for seven years, it had to happen eventually." Carefully she arranged the candles on the cake.

"They never?"

"Apparently so. We all shared a few secrets last night. What? They helped me bake the cakes."

"Does this mean what I think it means?"

She reached over and took his hand. "Yes my love, we can come out. Not quite as literally as they will."

"What if mum objects?"

"Then we'll weather the storm, like we always have."

She lit the candles with her wand and carried it out to the living room. The twins gathered on either side of her as everyone wished them a happy birthday.

Together they blew out the candles.

The cake exploded in their faces.

Hermione was the first one to laugh. Fred followed her lead and soon everyone was guffawing away.

Hermione grinned impishly. "What? I couldn't resist. It is April Fool's day after all."

"You pranked the twins?" Ginny cried in disbelief.

"I thought they'd appreciate it. Don't worry the cake isn't wasted. I made a spare."

Now the twins looked apprehensive.

"Don't worry, it's not booby trapped." She said, wiping cake away from Fred's mouth so she could kiss him.

"When did that happen?" Ginny asked, confused, pointing from one to the other.

"You don't know the half of it, Gin." Ron said, slinging an arm over her shoulder.