Hermafrosts

8:30pm

George transfigured one of the stools near the workroom into a couch and collapsed onto it, covering his eyes.

"This has got to be one of the worst fuckups I've ever made," he groaned.

"It's not exactly your finest hour," Lee agreed. "Though maybe you shouldn't discount the time that you turned Oliver into a pelican during your match with Ravenclaw in second year."

George shook his head. "Yeah, see, for one thing that was his fault for picking up my shin guards instead of his own, and, more importantly, I didn't piss off Fred." He rubbed his forehead. "Merlin, he's going to kill me. How could I have been so stupid?"

Lee sank down next to George. "Cheer up, come on. It's one of the stupider things you've done since I've known you, but when you get down to it, it's not that bad. If I was stuck in a workroom for the night, I can think of worse people to be stuck with."

"I can't."

Lee looked at George in surprise. "Thought you liked Angelina."

"I do. So does Fred."

Lee waited a beat. "...and this is a problem because?"

George shook his head wearily. It really wasn't any of Lee's business. Which was a very odd thing to think, as Lee had always been so much a part of him and Fred that keeping secrets from him felt almost as weird as trying to keep secrets from one another. But this concerned things that weren't George's to tell. And if Fred hadn't told Lee - or Lee hadn't cottoned onto - just how Fred felt about Angelina, it really wasn't George's place to fill him in.

"Look, he liked her enough to go out with her in school," said Lee. "They're friends. I'm just not seeing the difficulty."

"She broke up with him."

"Well yeah, two years ago. But he's single, she's single... why is it the end of the world if they're in there for another twelve-"

"They'll want to shag."

Lee snorted. "Oh NO! Stuck for hours with a pretty girl who's dying for it, and there's no way out of the room but to shag her!" Lee smirked. "If the Death Eaters ever catch me, d'you think maybe I can get them to make that my punishment? 'Please, I can take Cruciatus, I can deal with being Imperio'd to murder Muggles for the fun of it, but please, please, Merlin please don't lock me in a room with a gorgeous girl I fancy! Especially if she's gagging for it!"

George threw a cushion at him and Lee batted it away. "Shut it. For one thing, neither of them can get out till he returns the favour."

Lee shrugged. "All right, that part wouldn't be my top choice of first-time sexual activities, but again I say-"

"You'd do it?"

Lee smirked. "With Angelina? Faster than you can say 'sodomy,' mate."

George laughed. "Well, that's you."

"I've been saying this for a while: you two need to become more experienced in the ways of the world."

"We're plenty experienced."

Lee sniggered. "Listen, Veela wedding guests aside, middle-aged or underaged customers and Diagon Alley shop girls swooning over you and propositioning you for twinny threesomes is not adequate sexual experience for two dashing young wizards. You need to have a go at the real thing."

George rolled his eyes. "We will. Someday."

"Well I'd wager to say he will. Today." Lee looked at his watch. "Possibly technically tomorrow, depending how long it takes for them to realize it's a sin to let a perfectly good potion like that go to waste." He glanced at the workroom door, then frowned slightly. "What the..." He stood up, approached the door and listened for a moment. His eyebrows went up.

"What?" George asked. "Are they..."

Lee sniggered quietly and walked away from the door.

"They're singing."

"What?"

George got up and stood outside the door for a moment.

Ninety-seven bottles of Butterbeer on the wall,

Ninety-seven bottles of Butterbeer,

Take one down, pass it around,

Ninety-six bottles of Butterbeer on the wall.

He grinned and went back to Lee, who had leaned his head against the back of the couch and covered his eyes.

"Oh my GOD it's no wonder you two haven't scored yet. That's what he does when he's trapped with a beautiful girl like her? Singalongs?!"

George chuckled. "The song's part of a Charm we sell. Makes weird colours appear on the walls at parties. Useless, but rather pretty."

"Haven't seen it."

"Well it's not got any humour value, so we don't always have them on sale."

"Still." Lee shook his head. "Singing Ninety-nine Bottles. What's he going to do next? Play cards?"

George shrugged. "We've got a few card decks. Some board games too."

Lee stared at him. "I swear, you two are nineteen going on twelve."

"What's wrong with board games?" George asked defensively.

"Nothing, if you're looking for a way to entertain your elderly half-deaf uncle on a rainy Saturday evening. You two know absolutely nothing about women, do you?"

"D'you know how much we make off WonderWitch products?"

"It's growing up with almost nothing but brothers, I think," Lee mused, ignoring him. "And your role models, I swear... all right, somehow Bill got himself a Veela wife, but he's so much older than you that he couldn't have been home much while you two were growing up, and he obviously passed absolutely none of his skills on to you. Charlie? Handsome bloke, I'll grant you that, but I don't think he notices females unless they're spitting fire at him. Percy... well. You poor, poor lost souls."

"And our dad? Fathered seven kids?"

"That only proves he got laid seven times. With the same woman."

"Six."

Lee waved off his correction. "Six, fine. And we don't want to think about what all that entailed. You're still beyond pathetic. Board games, my God."

11:00 pm

"I can't... take this any more..." Angelina said, and Fred snorted.

"Well we've got another ten hours till the antidote's brewed, so I'm afraid you can."

"It's unbelievable! Is this what it feels like all the time?"

"Merlin, no," Fred said, laughing out loud. Angelina glared at him. Fine time to get silly. "No, this is very special."

"I'm going to... would it be bad to, you know..."

Fred glanced over at her. "What?"

"To, you know... wank."

Fred blinked. "Seriously?"

"Fred, this is incredibly uncomfortable."

"Yeah I know, but..."

"Would it be bad?"

"Dunno. George!" he raised his voice and Angelina jumped. Footsteps sounded outside the room.

"Can he talk?"

"Shut up, Lee, 'course he can. Ang - erm, I was wondering, is wanking contraindicated here?"

"'Course not."

"You tested them too at first, right?"

"Yeah."

"Did you?"

"Wank? Like mad. Almost got a blister on my-"

"Not sure Angelina wants to hear that part, mate," Fred said hastily. "Thanks!"

"Won't do much good, though. 'Till you get the antidote, or, you know, do the deed."

Fred blew out his breath. "Does it help at all?"

"For about ten minutes, post-orgasm. Then you're back where you were."

"Ten minutes sounds pretty good right about now."

"Don't forget a sound charm."

"Right." Fred started to wave his wand. "Wait - how many times?"

"Did I wank?"

"Yeah."

"Erm... don't remember. Not for ten hours, that's for bloody sure."

"Thanks."

Fred thought for a moment.

"Well?" asked Angelina.

"Thinking," he said distractedly. "Right. We can put a curtain across the workroom for privacy if you want, but the silence charm... erm." He drummed his fingers on one leg for a moment. "No, it should be all right. If George said to do it, I'm hoping that means there isn't anything in the cakes that should react too badly with..."

"This isn't reassuring," Angelina muttered.

"Right, then, we won't use a silence charm-"

"-but I suppose it's worth the risk," she added quickly.

Fred grinned at her and went to one of the cupboards, pulling out a large lime-green sheet and tacking it up to both walls. He swept the newly-made curtain back with a flourish, motioning her to go past. "Go to it, then. Sure you don't want any help? I do have a certain expertise in this area-"

She rolled her eyes and tossed a piece of wadded parchment at him and he laughed, deflecting it. She stepped behind the curtain, which now divided the back half of the workroom, with the work tables and cauldrons, from the front half with the shelves and cupboards, and felt the silence charm set in as Fred's laughter was suddenly cut off.

She leaned against the back wall. Immediately moved away as an invoice on the bulletin board protested shrilly.

Right. She slid down to the floor, opening her trousers. God, how did one even do this, with... she'd handled two of these before, with Derek and with a charming Muggle boy she'd picked up at a pub one night, but it was rather different, having one herself.

She reached down. And nearly squeaked in surprise.

Well. That was pretty... that was incredibly stimulating. She felt a moment's jealousy towards boys, who could experience this intense pleasure all the time - quickly wiped out as she reminded herself that she'd been aroused for two hours, so of course she found a simple touch stimulating. Even if she'd only been under the stupid fairy cake's aphrodisiac effects she probably would've almost come instantly, extra appendage or not. She moved her hand up and down a few times, quickly realizing that she was about a second away from coming, and then she had no time to think about anything else as she came, muscles tightening up and pleasure exploding through her. She panted, lethargy spreading through her, and opened her eyes.

Oh.

Eeew.

Right. This had never been off-putting when the substance in question belonged to somebody else, but when it had come from her... how gross.

And how did one dispose of this stuff, anyway? She had a feeling that Fred would warn her against using magic to spell it away, but for some reason she really didn't want to touch it right now.

Squeamishly, she stood and grabbed a dishcloth off the worktable and wiped herself off. And started to wonder if Fred was doing the same thing, on the other side of the lime-green curtain.

He must be done, right?

Well, if he wasn't, she wasn't going to interrupt him. No matter how much she might kind of want to. No matter how much she might wish they were dealing with this together, instead of-

No, she didn't wish any such thing.

There were many good reasons why they were on separate sides of the curtain. It wasn't even the fact that Fred was still a bit more inexperienced than she'd expected. It was... well, their history. Much as she still looked back on their time together with a smile, much as she still loved him, there were many good reasons why she'd ended things with him, and getting physically intimate with him just because she was horny as hell, and trapped here with him for the next ten hours, was not an option.

But damn, this took her back. Memories she probably shouldn't dwell on right here and right now.

Memories like their first kiss, which had been so very... Fred-like, really. She'd initiated it, sort of, grabbing hold of him as he, George and Lee left the Great Hall after dinner one night, a few days after he'd invited her to the Yule Ball.

"Look, about the Yule Ball..." she'd begun, making her tone matter-of-fact.

"Yeah?" he'd said, clearly impatient to rejoin George and Lee, who were disappearing up the stairs, heads together, no doubt planning some prank.

"I know you asked me to go with you, but-" she'd stopped as Fred turned to look at her.

"What, d'you not want to any more?" he asked, surprised.

"No, no I want to," she said hastily, and he'd relaxed. "I just want to... well, the thing is..." she stopped, feeling incredibly foolish. She took a deep breath. "Are we going as just friends? Or what?"

He stared at her then, his head tilted to the side, George and Lee apparently completely forgotten. "What do you think?"

"You shouted across the common room. That's not generally the way a girl gets asked out if it's as more than friends."

He grinned at her. "Does have the element of surprise, though, doesn't it?"

She crossed her arms and stared at him.

"Would you go if it was as more than friends?" he asked her.

She frowned. "You're being evasive."

"Evasive. Good word." He grinned at her. "Would you?"

She lifted her chin. "Yeah. I would."

"Good." He ran a hand through his hair and suddenly looked oddly... shy.

"So? Am I?" she asked.

"Yeah. If you want. Do you?"

"Yeah."

And they'd sort of smiled at each other, and then Fred had stepped closer. She'd almost stepped back, startled, but straightened a bit and smiled up at him instead.

And then he'd kissed her, and it had been one of the least romantic and most wonderful moments in her life, because he'd sort of ducked down and kissed her lightly, so lightly she'd barely felt his lips on hers before he pulled back. Then he seemed to hesitate for a moment before touching her arm, pulling her closer and kissing her again, and she'd given a bit of a squeak. He'd broken off the kiss and started laughing, and she had too, and soon they were giggling like little kids.

They'd eventually settled down enough to try again, and this time there wasn't any giggling. This time there was excitement and totally unexpected sensual pleasure, and Angelina realized that, although she'd thought about kissing Fred often enough in the days since he'd asked her to the Ball - and a few times before that, which she was never going to tell anyone about - she'd mostly been thinking about the emotional part. The excitement, the thrill of knowing he liked her as more than a friend. The wonder of actually being involved in a romance, even if it was with one of the least romantic boys she'd ever met.

She hadn't thought about the feel of his lips, which were unexpectedly soft. The taste of his mouth - chocolate milk from dinner, of all things. The warmth of his body. The scent of his hair, the fine texture of it sliding between her fingers. The slight roughness of his cheek and the realization that although he didn't look like he had any facial hair, he apparently did. The way he'd pulled back from their first kiss and gazed at her, eyes shining with wonder, and then came back to her mouth as though pulled by an invisible force. He'd closed his eyes and sighed in contentment, and she'd echoed the sentiment, both of them clumsy as kittens, but it hadn't mattered. They'd only stopped when he'd remembered he was actually supposed to have a detention that night, and that was what George and Lee had been planning - a way to get them all out early.

It had all been so exciting. And unexpected, every time they kissed, because Fred didn't treat her like a girlfriend in public. They seemed to be friends, nothing more. Friends who sometimes met in empty classrooms and snogged a bit, before he had to run off to pull a prank or serve a detention or practice Quidditch.

An entire year of no commitment, which had eventually grown old. Treating her like a friend in the day, and kissing her in the dark. Treating her the same way he'd treated Oliver as his Captain at Quidditch, then holding her hand when she fretted over the team after practice. Spats that started out small and inconsequential, but eventually ate away at her, as her frustration with the casualness of their relationship ate at her. The fight they'd had after he and George had been banned from Quidditch had been spectacular - though the make-up snogging had been even better.

And then he'd left school, with George, without even telling her he was going. That had burned more than she could ever express.

She'd forgiven him, as a friend. Then dumped him as a boyfriend the first chance she got.

It had been the right thing to do. The smart thing to do. He wasn't ready for anything real; too immature and reckless and full of energy to even think of any commitments, other than to his family and to making the world laugh.

She sighed and closed her eyes. Suddenly wanting to ask him what it was they'd had together anyway. Had she really been his girlfriend in any real sense, or just a friend with benefits? What had all of that meant to him? Did it matter any more?

All right, he had to be done by now. And was probably waiting for her to open the curtain. She stepped towards the curtain hesitantly, then peeked through, preparing to duck back immediately if he was still... occupied.

Fred was sitting back against a cupboard, head thrown back, hand down his trousers, eyes closed, and Angelina breathed in quietly, her intention to duck back dying unnoticed. His hand was moving slowly up and down, teeth worrying his lower lip, and he gave a soft moan as he passed the palm of his hand over the crown, his legs quivering.

Oh Merlin. Angelina's breath hitched as she watched him, his hand gradually moving faster, his breath coming in short gasps. She pressed the heel of her hand down on herself, seeming to remember seeing boys do that before. Happily, it did appear to help.

He was breathing faster now, his hand running up and down with practiced ease, his breath hitching every time he passed his palm over the top, and he bit down hard on his left hand as the right went faster and his body strained upwards, and Angelina could almost feel the waves of pleasure and need coursing through him and God this was insupportable. His eyes were clenched shut, beads of sweat on his forehead, then his mouth opened in a gasp and he groaned deeply, shuddering, and Angelina had completely forgotten that she wasn't supposed to be here as she watched Fred's face while he came, gasping, bracing his hand on the wall behind him, then breathing deeply, the tension leaving his body.

Angelina froze. Oh shit. She... she wasn't supposed to be looking. She briefly contemplated backing up but he'd open his eyes any moment now and he'd see her and oh, shit.

She drew the curtain aside and knelt down beside him instead, and Fred stiffened slightly, then sighed and slowly opened his eyes.

"How long were you there?" he asked her quietly after a moment.

"Long enough," she said softly. "Sorry, I..."

He nodded, took out his wand, then blew out his breath. "Ugh. Forgot. Can you pass me a cloth?"

She looked at him, puzzled.

He nodded down at himself. "We can't really use most magic in here. I'd like to clean up."

"Right." She blushed, thankful that on her it wasn't nearly as visible as it was on him. Not that he seemed all that embarrassed. He took the cloth she handed him and she looked away as he cleaned himself and zipped up again.

Bloody hell. She'd come just minutes ago, but seeing Fred like that, she was feeling it again, that burn, that need... and she couldn't look at him. He didn't seem to mind that she'd been watching him, but all she could think of was that she shouldn't have. Considering what she was feeling physically, and considering how she'd felt since the moment she'd walked into his workroom, she should've known better. Because now she wanted... she didn't even know what she wanted, but...

No, that was stupid. She knew what she wanted. But it was something she shouldn't want.

Something that hadn't worked in the past and certainly wouldn't work now.

"What is it?" he asked.

She shook her head. The air smelled like spices and cleaning solution and sex.

"Come on, let's make some coffee," she said. "And get something to eat."

12:30 am

They were playing Basilisks and Mirrors. It was unreal. They were trying to pretend nothing had happened, and were playing Basilisks and Mirrors. She'd suggested Exploding Snap, but the giggle-fit and tasteless jokes that had inspired in him had effectively ruled that idea out.

"How can you concentrate on a game while this is going on?" she finally asked in dismay, gesturing at her groin.

"I've waited out botched experiments before. And as for being hard, like I said, ages thirteen to eighteen. I can play board games, play cards, do Arithmancy, write letters, listen to Binns..."

"You're joking. Binns?"

"Which part of 'welcome to a teenage boy's life' did you not understand?" He laughed at her. "Seriously, the crack of dawn was enough to get me hard some days."

Angelina rolled her eyes. "Ha ha ha. Who was Dawn, and why was she showing you her crack." She paused. "And yet you were always such a gentleman."

Fred looked down at the playing board, and Angelina tilted her head to the side. "Did you not want to? When we were going out together?"

He gave her a half-smile. "Think I'm made of stone?"

"Then... why didn't you? Why didn't we ever go farther than..."

Fred shrugged uncomfortably. "Were we even of age when we started going out?"

"I was. And I would've, you know," she said, regretting saying the words the moment they were out of her mouth.

Fred cleared his throat, looking away from her. "Are we going to finish this game? Because if not, I just realized there's some things I need to make that don't require much magic."

Angelina took a deep breath, gave him a "go ahead" wave, and he moved off to one of the shelves, taking out some chunks of wax of different colours and a small copper pot. She seated herself on one of the work stools and watched him as he filled a small cauldron with water and lit a fire under it, then picked a few of the coloured chunks of wax and put them into the copper pot.

She'd wanted to go farther, so much, back at school, as they'd fumbled together in dim classrooms, kissing with more enthusiasm than skill. She still remembered the first time they'd been snogging and he'd slowly drawn a hand down her back and pulled her a bit closer and she'd been able to tell he was rather excited about what they'd been doing. Remembered how that had made her feel, excitement and nerves and need and delight all at once.

They'd never gone very far, though. Just some heavy snogging, petting over clothes, and he'd slipped a hand up her shirt once. She'd gasped and they'd ground against each other and then his breathing had become uneven and then he'd stopped and shivered, and then been rather embarrassed.

"Did you - erm."

He'd bitten his lip, cleared his throat. "Erm. Yeah." Ran a hand through his hair and shrugged, giving her a sheepish look. "Sorry."

It had made her feel wanted. Desired. Made her want to be the cause of that shiver again.

And now they were here, and she'd seen him come, and maybe it was because she'd just broken up with Derek the Dick, and missed everyone back home, and Fred was being sweet and considerate and seemed to have grown up a bit since the last time they'd been together, and she was so fucking hard, and who knew what else, but all the reasons she had for avoiding doing anything physical with him were losing their persuasive power astonishingly fast.

There are many good reasons why I must not snog Fred, she reminded herself. Reason One:

What was Reason One again?

Fred was carefully suspending the copper pot over the water in the cauldron, then measuring out some oddly shimmering powder and sprinkling it into the pot, his brow furrowing in concentration as he moved the pot back and forth so that the powder was absorbed by the wax. And she couldn't take it any more.

It wasn't the physical need. That was bothersome, but manageable. It was the yearning to pull him close again, to feel his body responding to hers. To touch him and make him lose control, even just for a moment. To see what else lay beneath the casual air of energy and laughter that always surrounded him.

"Fred."

"Yeah?"

"Did you ever want to... did you ever wish we hadn't broken up?"

Fred blinked a couple of times, then shrugged. "Well yeah, of course. You're the one who ditched me, right?" he said lightly. "Thought we could've had fun together."

"No, I mean, really wish. As in..." damn, she couldn't even articulate it. Did you think about me? Did you feel bad when I left you? Did you have to tell yourself we were over, over and over again, until you made yourself believe it? Did you feel like crying? Did you cry?

"Did you wish we could've made up?"

"Sure, yeah."

She blew out her breath in annoyance. This was getting nowhere. "What about right now?" she said, and could feel her pulse speeding up. "Do you want me? Beyond what the fairy cake is making you feel?"

"Angelina..." he said softly.

"I want you," she said.

Fred gave her a rather grim smile. "No you don't. A messed up experiment wants me."

"It's only partly the experiment. I wanted you before I ate that bloody fairy cake."

Fred sighed and looked away, and her heart sank.

"Fred... sorry. Sorry, I shouldn't've said anything." Damn it to hell, this was mortifying. "I should've known... of course you wouldn't still want - fuck. Never mind, forget I said anything-"

Fred put out a hand. "Stop. Please."

Angelina stopped, her heart racing. Fred was staring at the floor, gathering his thoughts, and for a boy who'd never had any problem speaking before, he was obviously having difficulty figuring out what to say.

"It's not that I don't. Want to, that is." He swallowed. "You're... it's not that I don't want you."

"It doesn't have to mean anything," she said quietly. "We're friends, right? It doesn't have to..."

He took a deep breath. "No, I suppose it doesn't." He drew closer to her, still not meeting her eyes, then gently tugged her off the stool and kissed her.

Oh, he'd learned. Since the last time they'd done this, he'd learned. Didn't matter whether he'd learned with Claudine, or with whomever. The Muggle girl in the village. Who knew. Who cared.

"Closer," she said, and pulled him to her. He was gasping into her mouth and she pressed herself to him, her nipples tight, her body wanting something, anything-

He groaned and she pulled back. "No, don't. Come back," he said. He ran a hand to the nape of her neck, and that was one of the things she'd loved about him. He would hold her head so gently, so tenderly, whenever he kissed her, and the lips that were so often laughing would touch her softly, and those hands would caress her cheek, her neck-

"Merlin," he whispered. "That's..."

"Missed that?"

"Yeah."

She touched his tongue with hers, lips gentle against one another, and he ran his fingers down her arm, grasping her hand and lacing their fingers together as she moaned.

God, with the way they were both feeling, it really wasn't going to take very much for them to be - well, he was way ahead of her, she could feel how hard he was against her thigh, though she was much too shy to let him feel her own... not so little development. She ran a hand down to herself and he thrust against her, his voice gone as she stroked herself once, twice-

"Oh!" he gasped and stiffened, groaning and shuddering, and the feel of him, the sudden warmth against her thigh, was enough for her. She was gone, over the edge, everything clenching, releasing, shaking her, blinding her.

"Fuck," he said softly as they caught their breath, holding on to one another. "Oh, fuck." He closed his eyes, covering them for a moment, and she stared at him.

He regretted it. Oh God, he'd only done it because she'd pressured him and what normal boy wouldn't jump at the chance of getting off with any female with a pulse, especially when they were feeling the way Fred had been feeling a few minutes ago?

She drew back and he looked up at her, his eyebrows drawing together.

"What?"

"I'm - I'm sorry, I know you probably don't-"

"What?" He seemed genuinely puzzled.

"You regret it," she said flatly, embarrassed. "What we just did."

He gaped for a moment. "Erm, all right," he finally said carefully. "Where the hell d'you get that from?"

"You didn't want to, and-"

"I thought you didn't. That you only did because... well, the bloody fairy cake."

"Told you, I wanted to before that. You-"

"I don't regret it. Unless you do."

"I don't."

"Fine, then." And they stared at each other for another moment before starting to laugh.

"Erm, I think another cloth is going to be needed here," he said, looking down.

"Two," Angelina muttered.

Fred sniggered. "Right. Two. Erm. Welcome to... manhood?" She elbowed him. "No nice discrete orgasms for us. Here." He handed her another small cloth. "Right. D'you want to get back to our game?"

"Not much, no."

"Neither do I. Thought I'd offer."

"I can think of better ways to occupy our time."

He looked away from her, then came closer. "So can I," he said, and kissed her.

1:30 am

"Bloody late," Lee commented, yawning. He glanced over at the workroom door. "What d'you suppose they're doing?"

"Rather not go there, if it's all the same to you," said George, dusting the WonderWitch shelves.

"It's not going to hurt them if they don't do it, is it?"

"No, it'll just be really maddening. Picture the hardest you've ever been. Now stay that way for twelve hours straight."

Lee grimaced and watched George dust for another minute. "How long are you going to stay up?"

"Not as long as Fred," George muttered, and Lee sniggered. "Dunno. After hours we usually restock the shelves with supplies from the workroom, or make more stuff. Can't do either tonight, so I figure I'll try to catch up on the cleaning, balance the books, that sort of thing. Oh and I should probably take a look at the Puff breedery too."

"You're actually going through with that? Breeding Pygmy Puffs with You-Know-Who faces on their backs?" George nodded, and Lee shook his head. "Leave it to you two to think of making the Dark Lord fluffy and cuddly."

"Well we are planning on marketing them as chew-toys, primarily. Besides, the Bellatrix Puff we bred wasn't half-bad. Even Charmed her to shriek and dance around. Sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Lee groaned. "You're mental, I swear. And didn't the BellaPuff run away?"

"She's still here somewhere though. Sometimes she pops out, hexes our ankles. Hurts like hell."

Lee drew his legs up onto the couch, glancing back at the workroom door.

"Can't he work in there?"

"Not really. We've figured out a few bits of magic that aren't likely to kill you when you're under the influence of a not-fully-tested product, but we don't like to push it too far."

"You two? Not like to push too far?" Lee scoffed. "Pull the other one, it's got bells on."

George shook his head, starting to put the violently pink products back onto sparkling clean shelves. "No, really. We found out half the time cleaning charms will clean you of all your hair."

Lee sniggered. "So?"

"All your hair. And you can make yourself look like you've got hair, but underneath it, the real thing is growing back, and trust me, you don't want to know how that feels in some places."

"Ugh."

"Yeah. A tidying spell once reacted with an experimental origami Wheeze and rearranged all of Fred's freckles into perfectly spaced lines, like a grid pattern. A freshening spell made me smell like baby powder from about five streets off. I left a trail of potpourri behind me wherever I went." He straightened up a display of Daydream Charms. "So if Fred's doing anything in there, it'll be one of the very few things that we know are safe, or something that needs to be done manually. Don't," he said in a pained voice as Lee opened his mouth for a predictable quip.

Lee glanced at the workroom door thoughtfully. "So, would you? If you were in there?"

George shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe."

"Come on. Bloody hell, I'd do it in a second. And if Oliver was in there? He'd come just thinking about it. She's fucking gorgeous."

"Yeah, well, she's not your brother's ex," George muttered.

Lee snorted. "Yeah, from about a million years ago. So why wouldn't Fred, then?"

"She's not just any girl to him," he said uncomfortably, starting to rearrange a shelf of perfumes. "Say, what happened to that lead you got the other day, on those Muggle-borns that escaped the Ministry back in September?"

"Reg Cattermole's lot? Nothing, didn't pan out. So why wouldn't Fred want to?"

"Lee, drop it," George said brusquely, and Lee looked startled. "Sorry." He cleared his throat. "Would you really let a girl bugger you?"

"Why not? Granted, it wouldn't be my top choice of what to do between the sheets, but I've heard it can be fantastic for the receiver. You know Eddie Carmichael gets it every chance he can."

"Yeah, well, just seems weird. And it'd be different with a bloke, I'd think."

"Why?"

"Dunno, it just is. Like it's supposed to happen that way, if both blokes are into that kind of thing. With a girl, though... just seems weird."

"A lot of sex seems weird before you actually do it." Lee waggled his eyebrows. "Oral sex, right? Tell me you didn't think that sounded a bit disgusting before you met your Veela cousine-in-law."

George smirked. "Yeah, well, sure, but that's blow jobs."

"Buggery's probably the same thing. Don't knock it till you try it. Some Muggle once said 'The only unnatural sex act is one you cannot perform.' Though I suppose that's not really saying much," he said thoughtfully. "There's really not that much Muggles can perform, when you think about it. Rather limited repertoire."

George laughed. "Still don't think I'd ever want to try it myself, though."

"Never say never, young one," said Lee.

2:30 am

Thank God they'd chucked absolute restraint a few hours ago, thought Angelina as Fred nuzzled her throat, then licked the place behind her ear that always made her melt. Not that they'd been doing this the whole time. He'd eventually finished making a few of Wheezes' Everlast candles, decorated one of them with a picture of Hogwarts, and they'd alphabetized everything in sight, for starters. She'd told him a bit about Derek and the Isle of Man, and he'd told her a bit about Ron's sojourn at Bill's house, which had apparently lasted a few weeks. But every so often they would find themselves touching and kissing again and... and now here they were. On one of the beds, which Fred had pulled out from the cupboard and set up. Hoping they could get to sleep, or at least some rest.

"I dunno, if you're tired enough you might actually be able to sleep," George had said through the door when they'd asked him. "Wouldn't plan on restful sleep, though."

"Oh and Angelino," Lee had said seriously, "if you wake up and your sheets are all sticky, that's perfectly natural. Now that you're a growing boy, your body's going through changes; it's all part of the wonder of becoming a - OW!"

There wasn't a lot of resting happening on the bed right now. Fred was touching her over her clothes and it was bloody frustrating, that a boy so incredibly audacious and reckless in the rest of his life would be so tentative with this. She blamed Molly Weasley. She could only imagine how strenuously she must have tried to instill respect for girls and women into her houseful of boys.

...and she simultaneously wanted to deck Fred, because of all the things he could have absorbed from his mother, he would have to choose the exhortation to be a gentleman with regard to sex.

Well, one of them was going to have to take the initiative here, and he'd shown himself to be quite comfortable following her lead when it came to Quidditch, for the two months she'd been his Captain.

She tugged his hand away from her hair, brought it to the front of her blouse, and he paused for a moment, pulling away from their kiss. His eyes were glazed with desire and a bit of endearing confusion, and his eyebrows went up a bit. She nodded and smiled, and he hesitated for a moment before starting to undo her buttons with deft agility. He hesitantly put his hand on one breast and paused to gaze at her, wonder in his eyes. She started to undo his robes.

"No, let me," he said, and batted her hand away. He shrugged off his magenta robes impatiently, then unbuttoned and removed his shirt in record speed, before drawing her blouse off and pulling her close.

Oh, God, that felt so... she'd seen him with his shirt off a few times, what with playing Quidditch together, but he'd never seen her, and the appreciation in his eyes was rather gratifying. As was the way he drew in his breath as she slid her hands over him. He cupped her breast, taking her lips in a soft kiss, and she gasped, arching into his touch. She reached back to undo her bra and smirked at his shocked indrawn breath as it came off.

"Fuck, Ange," he whispered. He caressed her breast, gently, almost as though he was afraid of hurting her. She pressed into his hand, closing her eyes as he leaned down and took her nipple into his mouth, too gently, too shyly, then groaned as she gasped and tangled her fingers into his hair and pushed him closer. His breath sped up and he tongued her nipple, one hand cupping the other breast and the other hand on her back, pressing her closer, God, it was like they were trying to become one person, closer, harder...

She lay back, drawing him down with her, on top of her, smiling as he rested on her and she felt how hard he was. He pulled back slightly and seemed to be warring with the impulse to thrust against her, and she decided she'd had enough. They'd waited long enough. He'd waited long enough.

She reached down and grasped him through his trousers, eliciting a gasp, then slipped a hand inside. He groaned, trembling, as she grasped him firmly, and swore inventively as she started to move her hand on him. He abandoned her nipple in favour of burying his face into her neck, shaking, breathing shallowly, his body jerking with every stroke.

"Fuck, Angelina, oh God, oh fuck," he was reduced to swearing quietly, feverishly, and she could hear him panting, pressing himself into her hand, again and again and-

God, both of them panting with need and aching to do more, and they were both so incredibly hot, so incredibly turned on, and really, she couldn't decide whether she would kill or kiss George Weasley by the time she got out of here.

Fred was groaning steadily now and she knew in a moment he'd come - they both would - and it would feel great at the time, but it was so damnably frustrating, knowing they'd be right back here again in minutes. She stopped, removed her hand, and shifted a bit, parting her legs so that he was pressed against her. God, she was so very wet, and she needed him so much. She was unable to stop herself from thrusting up at him for a few strokes, feeling his heat against hers, with too many layers between them. He swore again, lifting his face from her hair and looking at her questioningly as she stopped moving. His eyes dazed and dark, face flushed, beads of sweat on his brow.

"You can, you know," she whispered. "If you want to."

He gazed at her, biting his lip.

"D'you not want to?"

He laughed breathlessly, rolling his hips and thrusting against her slowly. "If you have to ask..."

"Then go ahead."

"Erm... never done this, though," he said quietly. He glanced down. "And with this... erm..."

She grabbed her wand quickly and waved it, making her unwelcome addition disappear from view.

"Ange- fuck, don't do that," he said nervously. "I - it's not that off-putting, you know. Bloody dangerous, doing magic in here."

"Sorry, forgot. D'you want to?"

He nodded slowly, and she drew her hand down, encircling him. He moaned, closing his eyes, then covered her hand with his, stilling her movement.

"Wait, don't, too close-"

She stopped, then shifted him off of her for a moment, undoing her trousers and pulling them off, while he shucked his own. She lay back down again, drawing him on top of her, giving a contented sigh as she felt him nestled against her. "Don't worry. It'll come naturally."

He kissed her, running a hand down to her hips, tilting her a bit till they were pressed together and she brought her legs up and hooked them over his waist.