Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Whatnot

4 years later:

I was standing at the mantel, holding a picture. Three laughing faces looked back at me from the snow pile they had fallen in. One, my own; the other two, my best friends Fred and George. As I looked at the picture, I felt a tear slide down my cheek. All these years, and I still missed him.

Then, suddenly, I heard feet pounding up the stairs. I hurriedly replaced the picture and wiped under my eyes. It was hard enough for him already, even now. I didn’t want him to see me crying.

When he got upstairs, he sighed and sat in a chair, putting his head in his hands.

“George? Are you okay?” I asked, sitting on the arm of the chair and putting my hand on the back of his neck.

He pulled me down into his lap and buried his face in my hair.

Eventually, he looked at me and said “A little kid just came up and wanted to buy a skiving snackbox. That’s it; just one box. And he was so excited. It was like a wave, it just hit me. I remember when we first created those.”

I knew the look in his eyes; I’d seen it quite a bit after Fred’s death. I kissed the side of his head.

“I miss him too.” I said softly.

“It’s so hard sometimes.”

I stroked his hair “I know”

I never knew how I could comfort him, I felt like I could be doing so much more. But he lost his twin. I didn’t know what that felt like, I couldn’t even imagine. I had lost one of my best friends, but for George, it seemed that feeling was multiplied by ten.

His arms tightened around me and he put his forehead against mine.

“I’m sorry” I whispered.

He swallowed and shook his head, “There’s nothing for you to be sorry for, you don’t know what it means to me that you’ve been here through all of this. I know you’re sad too, but you’re always trying to make me feel better and I don’t know how you can stand it”

“I just want you to be okay. No matter what, I’ll always be here. I promised that remember? For better or worse”

He smiled then said “I wish he could’ve been there”

“Me too” I said quietly.

He sighed “I guess I better go back down. I left that new girl we hired in charge.”

“She seemed reliable enough.”

“Yeah, but she’s rather serious isn’t she? Reminds me a lot of Hermione.”

I smiled a bit. “She does actually. Maybe that’s why we hired her, we felt we could trust her. Anyways, I have a doctor’s appointment soon and Jordan called in sick earlier, he was supposed to come in an hour. Are you going to be alright on your own with the shop tonight?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine.” He gave me a small smile. “How are you feeling today by the way?”

“Kind of the same, but not as bad as yesterday”

“I wonder if maybe you have a muggle disease”

“And how would I get that?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know, it’s just a guess”

“I suppose I’ll find out, and I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I said, getting up.

“You better”

I smiled and he kissed me quickly before going back down to the shop.

Even though I promised George I would be back as soon as possible, I walked back from the doctor’s slowly. I was trying to think of how to tell him. I didn’t know how he would react. Would he be upset, would he get scared? We didn’t plan this. Of course, we didn’t exactly plan anything with our relationship. We didn’t plan to kiss in that closet all those years ago, it just happened. We didn’t plan to fall in love, I mean, I had just been his little brother’s friend at first. I doubt he planned on proposing on the one year anniversary of the battle and the night his twin died. We didn’t plan on waiting a year to tell Mrs. Weasley, and then feel so guilty that we let her put together the wedding for us. None of it had been thought out ahead of time, things just always seemed to work out, and I was hoping that would still be the case now.

When I entered the shop, George was helping a customer and he seemed in a much better mood. I waited behind the counter for him to be done, wrapping up purchases for people in the meantime.

Finally, he came back around the counter.

“Hey” he kissed my cheek “you’re back. How’d it go?”

“Uh, fine, for the most part, but there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“What is it? Are you alright?”

“I- um…I’m…pregnant.”

His mouth opened in shock, then it quickly turned to a grin “Are you serious?”

“Yes? Pretty sure, I mean that’s what the doctor said and he should know right?” I shrugged, giving him a small smile.

“That’s brilliant!” he said, lifting me and twirling me around.

I laughed and when he put me down, I said “So you’re okay with it?”

“Okay with it?! This is great! You’re okay with it right?”

“Yes” I said quickly “yes, absolutely, I just didn’t know how you would feel about it.”

“Caroline, I love you, and now we’re having a baby. I’m beyond ecstatic about this.”

“Good” I smiled and kissed him.

“We should celebrate” he said when we broke apart.

“How?”

“However you want. Do you want me to make you dinner? Or go out to dinner? Or we could take a walk somewhere. Or Apparate, travel to Paris or Venice or wherever you want. Just say the word.”

I laughed “You don’t have to do anything extravagant for me. I wouldn’t mind staying in tonight.”

“Well if we’re staying in, then I’m making you dinner.”

“Sounds great” I kissed his cheek.

“Okay!” he yelled to everyone still in the shop “Sorry, but we’re closing early, I just found out my wife’s pregnant!”

There were some cheers and he grinned again while I blushed, “So sorry for the inconvenience. You can bring your purchases up right now, and we hope to see you all again soon.”

“Do you need any help?” I asked from my perch on the kitchen counter.

“Nope, you need to rest in your delicate condition.”

I scoffed “You can’t even tell I’m pregnant yet, I don’t need to rest. If you do everything for me now, you’ll be tired of it by the time I really am too pregnant to do much.”

“No I won’t”

“Uh, yes you will. I’ve never been pregnant before, I could be the most demanding bitch in the world for all we know.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, coming over to stand in front me and putting his hands on my waist. “I’d do anything for you.”

I smiled, I couldn’t seem to stop smiling now “Did you know I love you?”

“You’ve told me once or twice” he kissed me then said “Now, if you really want to do something, I could let you set the table.”

“You mean aside from the tablecloth, flowers, candles, and dishes you already set out?”

“Yeah, I think I forgot forks.”

I laughed and hopped down “Fine, I’ll get forks, and then I’m going to light the candles, and don’t you dare say anything about fire being dangerous around the baby.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it and just smiled, saying “Fine.”

When I told him about it, I was greatly relieved that he was so excited. His excitement had actually rubbed off on me a bit, too, and I realized, without the worry about his reaction, just how happy I truly was. After he had closed up and we came upstairs, he had said he wanted to make me a special dinner and I wasn’t to help. Whether it was because I needed to “rest” or because knives were “too dangerous,” he wouldn’t let me help with anything. It was really sweet, although I wasn’t sure if he actually realized I was perfectly capable and it wouldn’t be until my last month or so where his precaution would be warranted.

After we ate, I stood up to blow out the candles since they were getting low.

“Hey come here” George said, taking my hand and pulling me into his lap.

“I want a hippogriff and…new shoes”

“You can have whatever you want, you’ve been very good this year” he winked.

I smiled and kissed him.

“I love you” he said.

“I love you too” I laid my head on his shoulder.

“At least right now because I’m not fat yet” I added.

He just chuckled.

9-ish months later:

I lay back on the pillows, panting. George was standing next to the hospital bed, still holding my hand.

“You’re incredible” he said leaning down and kissing my forehead.

“Yeah, yeah” I sighed.

“Really, you are. You’re incredible and I love you” he kissed my lips.

“I love you too” I smiled up at him.

“Are you sure? Because not too long ago you were calling me a jerk and saying you hated me, it was all my fault, and you’d kick me out if I ever got you pregnant again”

“I was in a lot of pain, you can’t believe half of what I said”

He chuckled, smoothing my hair back from my face.

The doctors came and put a small bundle in each of our arms. I looked down into the face of our daughter. Our daughter. The most beautiful little baby, with big eyes and a tiny, waving fist.

“They’re Weasleys alright” I said, looking up at George.

He was smiling at our son and looked over to me. Our babies both had the characteristic red hair.

“I never expected anything else” he grinned.

“Do you want to see your daughter?” I asked.

We switched, so I was holding our baby boy. He looked so much like George.

“She has your eyes.” He said quietly. “She’s so beautiful.”

“They both are.”

“What are we going to name them?”

We hadn’t discussed this that much. I thought that I would know once I held them.

“She looks like a Lorelei. Lorelei Tonks I’m thinking, in memory.”

“Lorelei Tonks Weasley, what am I going to do when you start dating?” he said, chuckling.

“And for him…” I swallowed, “Fred. He looks like you and Fred.” I said, tears starting to run down my cheeks.

I think I always knew we would name our son after Fred. It just seemed fitting now, looking down at him. I looked up to see George had tears in his eyes too.

“Fred Alastor Weasley.” He said and I nodded.

“It suits him.”