Into Forever

“I’ve got a plan,” Fred announced one day during breakfast. I glanced up from the pan of eggs I was making and raised an eyebrow at him.

It had been a little more than a month since Bill and Fleur’s wedding; Fred, George, Angelina, and I were currently living in the flat above Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Business had actually been really good, right up until a few days ago, when school had started back up. Most of our repeat customers were in school now. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny had returned to the Burrow two weeks ago, leaving the four of us to mill around the flat and “test out” the gags from the joke shop.

As I stirred the eggs, I said,

“Alright, Weasley, let’s hear it.”

In response, Fred held up a copy of the Daily Prophet and raised an eyebrow.

“I said hear, not see, but good try honey,” I said in a sugary sweet voice. Fred rolled his eyes as George and Angelina snickered into their toast. Clearing his throat, he continued.

“This is the Daily Prophet-”

“Good identification skills!” George cooed, like he was talking to a baby. “Okay, now tell me, what’s this?” he asked, holding up one of the gag gifts the size of a jelly bean.

“A life size model of your penis?” Fred retorted, smirking at his brother. As George picked up his fork in preparation to stab Fred, and Angelina tried to smother her giggles, I sighed and said again,

“Well let’s hear this brilliant plan.”

“As I was saying, this is the Daily Prophet. The main news source for most of the wizarding world, and yet it’s corrupted so thoroughly I’m not even sure they’re using real paper to make it!”

“Getting past the fact that your metaphor really didn’t make that much sense,” I began, scooping the eggs onto four separate plates.

“Okay, okay,” Fred muttered, flipping me the bird, which I returned heartily. “What I’m saying is, we should start our own paper or something, you know? Get the uncorrupted truth out to the public, let them know what’s really going on!”

Though I was having fun teasing Fred, his idea did make a lot of sense.

“We couldn’t do a paper, though,” Angelina said, furrowing her brow as she thought. As I passed out the plates, Fred agreed,

“Yeah, a paper would be too easy to track. But a radio station…”

“A radio station would be harder to track, really?” I scoffed, sitting down beside him.

“Actually, yeah,” George said, shrugging his shoulders. “And it would be faster, and more accessible. We could broadcast a lot farther with radio than we could with a newspaper.”

As I chewed my toast, I ran the idea through my mind a few times.

“Are you serious about this truth radio thing?” I asked Fred, raising an eyebrow at him. He nodded vigorously, his shaggy orange hair flopping into his eyes. I glanced at George, who gave me a grin, and then at Angelina, who just shrugged and smiled.

“Well, hell then. We might as well give it a try,” I said, reaching over and brushing the hair from Fred’s blue eyes, which were now sparkling with excitement.

“One problem though,” George said, shoveling an entire forkful of eggs into his mouth. “None of us knows how to broadcast a talk show.”

Oh, yeah. That might be important.

“Lee does,” Fred said, standing up and taking his and Angelina’s empty plates to the sink. “Plus, he’s a great host. No one gave commentary for those Quidditch games better than him. Well, except Luna, but still.”

“Well, we solved one problem and made another,” I pointed out. “Lee can help us with the radio station, but we need to find him first.”

“Oh… Well, okay, we’ll work on that later,” Fred decided with a shrug. “It’s almost ten.”

Both Angelina and I glanced up at the clock above the stove. Two days ago, Mrs. Weasley had sent us an owl saying that Angelina’s father had been taken from the ministry by the Death Eaters. Angelina had decided she wanted to go back home to comfort and protect her muggle mom and brother, and she was leaving in just a few minutes.

With a long, weary sigh, Angelina stood up and tucked a strand of her long dark hair behind her ear as she gave George a sad look.

“I need to get going.”

George nodded, his eyes glued to the half-eaten plate in front of him.

“Walk me out?” she persuaded softly, resting her hand on his arm. George swallowed hard, then nodded and pushed away from the table. He gently took Angelina’s hand and laced his fingers with hers as they walked out.

“Do you want us to come down too?” I asked her, standing up as well. Her chocolate eyes sparkled with tears as she said,

“Of course, I need to say goodbye to all of you.”

Fred placed his hand on my lower back as he walked beside me down the stairs to the front door. The breeze was crisp as the September air swirled around us; Fred and I huddled on the front steps while George pulled Angelina into a long, loving hug.

“Be careful, please, please Ang, be careful…”

“You know I will be,” she assured him, squeezing him a little tighter.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to go with you?” he asked again; I could see the pain in Angelina’s eyes. They’d never been apart, not like this. She wanted him to go with her, more than anything, but instead she said,

“Fred and Kels need you here. I’ll be back before you know it.”

George just nodded as they stepped apart; Angelina turned her smile to me, and I hurried down the steps to pull her into a hug.

“Take care of yourself, and the baby,” she told me, giving a gentle squeeze.

“Be safe out there,” I replied, closing my eyes and hugging her tighter.

“If you ever need any help,” Angelina said, pulling back and slipping her hand into her pocket. “Just send me a message and I’ll be there.” Withdrawing her hand, she unfolded her fingers and revealed a small golden galleon with the letters DA in the middle of it.

“Do you still have yours, Fred?” she asked, glancing up at him as he came down the steps.

“Sure do. You’ll be the first person we call,” he assured her, pulling her into a tight, swift hug. As Angelina pulled back, she looked to me and said,

“Take care of George for me. God only knows how he’ll find both his shoes without me.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him and his footwear,” I promised, holding up my right hand in an honorary fashion.

George gave a watery laugh and pulled his life-long girlfriend into another hug. Without saying anything else, they separated, and George stepped back and watched as Angelina closed her eyes and disappeared with an echoing crack.

Silently, he turned and headed back up the steps of the shop, then up to the flat. Fred and I exchanged a sad glance, and then followed him upstairs. When I opened the door, I’d been expecting him to be at the table, scarfing down the rest of his breakfast. Instead, I caught sight of him disappearing into his room.

“Aren’t you going to finish your eggs?” I called to him.

“I’m not hungry,” he called back as he shut the door.

That was the first time I’d ever heard a Weasley utter those words.

* * *

A few days had passed since Angelina left. Slowly, George had gotten his appetite back, but I knew he wasn’t all there. Half his heart was somewhere in western London.

It was early on a Tuesday morning that Fred decided to wake me up at half past six. He’d actually woken me up when he’d given the excited, girl-like squeal from down the hall, but I’d done my best to go back to sleep. Now, he was crouched beside the bed, vigorously shaking my shoulder.

“Kelsey! Are you awake?!”

Reluctantly, I peeled open one eye and gave him the best glare I could.

“Lord knows I don’t want to be,” I muttered.

“I got a hold of Lee!”

“That’s great, sweetheart. Now let him go so I can go back to sleep.”

“Kelsey, he told me he’d help us with the radio broadcasting! He’s got an excellent hideout, all the equipment, everything we’d need!”

Letting out a tired, frustrated sigh, I peeled my other eye open and pushed myself into a sitting position.

“Okay, so Lee’s in on the idea. We’re really doing this?”

“Yeah!” he exclaimed, flopping back down onto the bed beside me. He was so adorable when he was excited. I’d appreciate his cuteness better when the sun was actually up, though.

“We’re really doing this at six in the morning?”

“Actually, six thirty seven,” he corrected, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. Somehow, Fred always managed to weasel a smile out of me. I snuggled into his hold a bit more and said,

“Okay, okay, I’m excited too.”

“Good,” he told me, giving me a swift kiss on the forehead. “Now go take a shower, Lee will be here in fifteen minutes and I’m sure you’ll want to do something with your hair.”

I began to laugh.

“Are you implying something, Weasley?” I challenged, sitting up the rest of the way and swinging my legs out of bed. Instinctively I stared down at my stomach. Now I was sixteen weeks pregnant and I’d developed a small baby bump; really, it just looked like I had gained a little weight. But still, it made me the happiest person alive every time I caught sight of it.

Fred caught me eying my stomach, and he scooted around to sit beside me. He rested his hand on my stomach and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. Then, patting my bump, he stood, stretched, and hurried out of the room towards the smell of coffee.

After a quick shower, I changed into a comfortable tank top and a pair of jeans, then walked out of the bathroom just as the front door opened to reveal the sight of Lee Jordan grinning at Fred. The two best friends pulled each other into a ‘manly’ hug, laughing and saying things like,

“It’s been too long mate!” and “It’s great to see you!”

George joined in on the brotherly ritual, but I hung back. I really hadn’t gotten to know Lee that well at school. But when he pulled back and caught sight of me, his smile widened and said,

“And there’s the gorgeous girl that stole my best friends heart!”

“And his sperm,” George added, barely managing to duck the pillow I chucked at him as I hurried over to give Lee a hug.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“So, Fred told me about his radio show idea,” Lee said after we’d settled down in the living room. Lee and George were stretched out on the couch; I was sitting cross-legged on my favorite recliner, and Fred was perched on the arm of the chair, his arm around my shoulders. I took a sip of my tea and said,

“Yeah, so what do you think? Can you help us out?”

“I love the idea, and I’ve got all the supplies, so hell, why not?”

Fred let out an excited cry and dove at Lee, pulling him into a bear hug. Of course George had to jump on in, too. I watched the three guys wrestle around on the couch as I seriously considered how good of an idea the radio show would be.

I wanted to help Harry, and I think for now this is the best we can do, I realized, staring down at my cup of tea. I still felt a twinge of remorse for staying behind with Fred and George, but realistically, it was better for all of us that I did. I’m not sure how much help a pregnant witch would be on this journey.

We’ll do our best, Harry. We’ll fight Voldemort from a different angle. We’ll show him how powerful the truth can be.